“Oh that I were as in months past,”  Job 29:2.

It is a sad fact that we ever seem to be in a lower spiritual state than that which we occupied a little time ago. We seem always to be able to look back upon a time when our love was warmer, our zeal was stronger and our following after the Lord was more earnest and more devout. Our times of soaring into the heavenlies seem so short-lived in comparison to the times we spend in the shadows. Frequently we will utter these words of Job.

Job looked back upon times which were much different from those he was presently experiencing.

Times of : God’s blessing was upon him, 3-5; his children were alive, 5; he was prosperous, 6; he was respected, 7-17, 21-25; when he was content and at peace, 18-20.

We shall not consider the immediate context but look at  the words in a general sense

I. THE EVIDENCE OF DECLINE

1. A loss of a sense of the Lord’s presence. Nothing is more real for the believer than the presence of the Lord. But we may go forward in life without His presence. “And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence,” Exodus 33:15. It happened to Samson.
2. There is a hardening of our conscience. We become more tolerant of sin. We do and say things that before we would have feared to do. Conscience no longer speaks with such power nor do we respond so readily to its voice. The fear of the Lord declines in us. Our thoughts, our tongues and our activities are less restrained. We show some evidence of the spirit of Psalm 2:3.
3. We are less energetic for God. Once we asked with David, “What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?” Psalms 116:12. Now we consider self first. We have less time and less inclination to serve the Lord.

II. HOW QUICKLY MAY OUR SPIRITUAL CIRCUMSTANCES DECLINE

“As in months past.” What changes a short time may bring to us. For this reason we should “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling”, Psa 2:11.

Sometimes we are slow to realise that our spiritual state has altered because it was such a short time ago that we were filled with zeal and love for God. But consider some elementary causes.

1. There is a decline in private devotions. Do we reserve a time for the Lord, to read His word and to seek His face as once we did? Psalm 44:18, 119:55.
2. A yielding to some secret sin. It will act as a cancer, as worm at the root of a shrub. The decay will be evidence though the cause secret. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God”, Isaiah 59:2.
3. A preoccupation with the things of the world. When that which is legitimate begins to occupy too much of our time then it becomes a snare unto us. “The care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful,” Matthew 13:22. “But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition,” I Tim 6:9.

III. WE OUGHT NOT TO MERELY PINE AFTER FORMER TIMES BUT ACTIVELY SEEK TO REGAIN THEM

1. Such a seeking after those times again must begin with repentance. We must freely and wholeheartedly confess to ourselves and to the Lord that we have fallen into decline. Like Mary and Joseph when the lost the child Jesus, we must return to the place where we last knew His company. Luke 2:44. We must seek to re-establish the habits and ways of those better times. Our mourning should outstrip the mourning of our conversion since we have more cause to mourn.
2. We should seek an abiding consciousness of the love of Christ for us. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” Rom 12:1-2. Such a sense of the love of Christ will bring our hearts into captivity again.
3. Let us live with eternity in view. We ought to eat our bread and engage in this world’s affairs as did the Israelite on the night of the Passover — with our loins girded, our shoes on our feet and our staff in our hands. Such a view will ensure that we keep our priorities right.