THE REPENTANT BACKSLIDER IS VERY CONSCIOUS OF THE MERCY THEY FORSOOK

"I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty," verse 21. She had been full and did not realise it. Now she does! She WENT OUT but it was the Lord BROUGHT HER HOME!

1. The first evidence of backsliding is losing our consciousness of God's goodness. A spirit of complaining breaks out. Ps 106:24-25. The word murmur is usually linked to a secret muttering against God.

2. This muttering against God is born of a loss of a spiritual appetite. There is a craving and a taste for the world. Nothing else will satisfy.

3. Like the prodigal, the BS leaves a full house for a famine. A right view of our position in Christ will show us our fulness. We may enjoy the fulness of the Holy Ghost, Acts 11:24; faith, Acts 6:5; Joy, John 15:11. We may say with Paul: "But I have all, and abound: I am full," Phils 4:18.