There is a great hymn that we just don’t often hear in our churches today. The lyrics are a fervent prayer expressed with true sincerity, humility, submission and exaltation, seeking the Lord’s will for our heart and lives. We are all truly just a lump of clay in the Master Potter’s hands awaiting His touch, then forming us and making us into what He would have us to be. Please, thoughtfully focus on the words of that hymn.

HAVE THINE OWN WAY, LORD

1. Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.

2. Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Search me and try me, Savior today!
Wash me just now Lord, wash me just now,
as in thy presence humbly I bow.

3. Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me I pray!
Power, all power, surely is thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!

4. Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Hold o’er my being absolute sway.
Fill with thy Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!

The Samaritan woman had discoursed with Jesus about her life. This portion of Scripture begins with discernment, “Sir I see that You are a prophet.” That was worship and reverence. Worship is recognizing Who God is and what he represents.

She then added, “Our fathers worshipped (past tense) on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship (present tense) is in Jerusalem.” The Samaritans had a past experience of worship and it was mountain worship. It was not the true worship because it was based on past tradition. The Jews on the other hand had a present experience of worship- in Jerusalem. It was the center of worship- the dwelling place of God.

Paul declares in one of his epistles “We all once were lost, but now are found“. We all once were lost in the world of sin, more sin and all sin, but we were then purchased by the blood of the Messiah YAHSHUA and became a part of His family.

We all were a family enjoying each other’s fellowship, moving in the Spirit, working the works of YAHSHUA and foretasted of the ‘power’ of the world to come. But one day suddenly we found ourselves once again in the hold of sin. We didn’t intended to do that but find ourselves doing what is wrong, as we see Paul expressing himself ” I do what I ought not to do and I not do what I ought to do“.

Such great is the power of sin luring us to itself by various means and ways. This is what the Scriptures declare and define as ‘backsliding’ when telling about its people.
Today, let us see what the Scripture tells us about backsliding. One of the chief reasons of backsliding is when we stop fearing YAHWEH and HIS commandments as the Scripture declare in Jeremiah 2:19, we do stop fearing YAHWEH sometimes when we think that HE is ever-merciful, which HE is and that HE will always forgive us.

One of the other chief reasons of our backsliding is when we give room to other unimportant things in our lives, making them an idol for us, which YAHWEH abhors. As we look in the rest of the book of Jeremiah we find that when the children of Israel backslided they began worshipping idols under every tree and on every high place, which do symbolize that when we backslide, we give prime importance to the things which were dead works and sin in our past life when we were still sinners but they have once again sproted up in our lives as idols restraining us from the fellowship with YAHSHUA and other spiritual blessings.

Then we begin to perpetually backslide as declared in Jeremiah 8:5, which will land us in great judgement and we wil not remain unpunished as YAHWEH’s WORD declare in Jeremiah 5:6 and other verses where HE declares HIS justice.
As we see in Hebrews 6:4,5,6, that it is impossible to renew the backslidden but YAHWEH ABBA also promises forgiveness on one condition, that we acknowledge our iniquities and ask for forgiveness as declred in Jeremiah 3:12,13,14.
Then HE in HIS ever mercy and goodness will forgive us and restore to us our previous position in Messiah YAHSHUA as HE promises in Jeremiah 3:22 and Hosea 14:4.
Come let us, if we know we have backslided, there is hope in Him who declares “I AM THAT I AM”, let us ackknowledge our iniquities in front of HIM and He will do what He has promised.

Pritish Nandi

The Samaritan woman had discoursed with Jesus about her life. This portion of Scripture begins with discernment, “Sir I see that You are a prophet.” That was worship and reverence. Worship is recognizing Who God is and what he represents.

She then added, “Our fathers worshipped (past tense) on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship (present tense) is in Jerusalem.” The Samaritans had a past experience of worship and it was mountain worship. It was not the true worship because it was based on past tradition. The Jews on the other hand had a present experience of worship- in Jerusalem. It was the center of worship- the dwelling place of God.