Friend, have you been backsliding? Have you drifted from God? If so, today’s prayer to stop backsliding is going to help you pour out your heart to the Lord and ask Him for help, right where you are.

Backsliding doesn’t always look sensational or appear sinful.

Sometimes people think that “backsliding” happens only when someone who used to say they loved God suddenly becomes a criminal, a fornicator, or a drunkard out of the blue. But, you know what?

Although those are certainly types of backsliding, the more common types of backsliding appear much more palatable and socially acceptable to the outside observer.

You can tell if you are backsliding or not by asking yourself real questions like this:

• Has God somehow lost His importance in your life?
• Are you still giving Him the first time in your schedule, including 1×1 time alone with Him in prayer and the Word, as well as worship and church attendance?
• Have you reduced the amount of effort you put forth in seeking God on a daily basis?
• Have you gone from spending lots of time with Him to giving Him the barest acknowledgement each day–and you’re wondering why things are going badly for you?
• Are you mad at God, disappointed with God, or disillusioned in your faith–so you decided to stop giving Him your all and living for Him no matter what?

If so, you already know that you’ve been backsliding–and you don’t need anyone to tell you. 🙂

You know because God the Holy Spirit has already been convicting you. He has already been showing you your spiritual state. And, out of His great mercy and love for you, He has been making you aware of these things because it is part of His work in ever-so-gently wooing you and drawing you back to Jesus.

Backsliding can happen to anybody.

It doesn’t matter how long you have loved the Lord, or how much you have lived for Him, or how many things you have done in His name. It’s possible for any of us to lose our first love for Him, as Jesus said in Revelation 3:

However, friend, you don’t have to keep backsliding.

Jesus is still right here with you to help you. He is mindful that you are but dust, and His mercies are new every day. He is ready, willing, and eager to forgive you as soon as you confess your sins to Him.

As His Word says in 1 John 1:9:

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9 NKJV).

God is so good, and He loves you just as much as He always has. His eye is on even the sparrow, and His eye is for certain on you right now. He knows where you are and what you’re going through–and He loves you just as much as He ever has.

But, He’s not willing to leave you in a backslidden state.

God wants to help you right now:

• His mercy and grace are for you, to bring you back into intimate relationship with Himself.
• He is extending His hand to you right now, lifting you up out of the miry clay and trying to help you by setting your feet upon a rock.
• He wants to make you brand new, forgiving your sins and covering you with the blood of Jesus anew and afresh.
• He wants to baptize you once again in His Spirit, His fire, His power, and His glory.

Do you want Him to do that for you?

Beloved friend, if you are reading this today and desperately to get right with God again–giving Him first priority and the attention He deserves in your life–then this prayer to stop backsliding will help you.

So, beloved, are you ready to pray from your heart to get right with God? If so, pray this prayer to stop backsliding:

“Father God, I come before You in Jesus’ name.

Abba Father, in Jesus’ name, I want to first thank You for all You have done for me.

You’ve been so good, and Your mercy endures forever. Thank You for loving me and caring about me, even on days when I don’t love You back very well. I praise You for Your grace and mercy, and I thank You that Your mercies are new every day.

Father God, You know I’ve been backsliding:

• I’ve lost my fervor for You;
• I’ve lost a lot of the will to seek You;
• I have not been getting up early or staying up late to spend time with You;
• I have not been giving you the first of my time, talent, or treasure;
• I’ve gotten fed up with seeking You without seeing the specific results I want to see, even though I know You are good and faithful;
• I’ve gotten frustrated with the situations I am walking through; and my eyes have been on those situations, instead of on You; and
• I have left my first love for You.

Father God, in Jesus’ name, I admit all this to You.

It’s obvious, and there’s no getting around it. I have absolutely been backsliding away from You:

• I have not been treating You with the honor You deserve.
• I have been worshipping at the altar of my feelings and desires, and I have not been trusting You with anything–especially not with myself.
• Like a child, I have been pitching a fit over not getting my own way–and I need You to help me leave this place of backsliding and come back to Your feet.

Father God, Your Word says in 1 John 1:9 that, if we confess our sins, You are faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So, I confess these things to You today:

• I confess that my backsliding, idolatry, and self-pity are sin, for they go directly against Your command to seek You first; to not have any other gods before You; to keep my eyes on Jesus; and to give thanks in all things.
• I confess that I have allowed doing my hobbies, feeling sorry for myself, looking at my phone or computer, and even being depressed and discouraged to dictate my time, words, and decisions–instead of letting You and Your commands dictate those things.
• Therefore, I confess that I have put everything first EXCEPT You–which is idolatry.
• And I have been mad at You this whole time while committing these sins and others, instead of thankful to You–even though You have always been good to me.

Lord, it is I who have not been faithful to You. And I confess that to You today.

And Father, I can only ask: please forgive me.

Please forgive me for all these things:

• Cleanse me and wash me with the precious blood of Jesus.
• Forgive me for grieving You and dishonoring You.
• Forgive me for grieving Your Holy Spirit.
• And please make me pure and clean inside, and fill me with Your Holy Spirit where all these things were–and in every part of me.
• Please change my heart and make me like You.
• Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.

Abba Father, in Jesus’ name, I present myself to You as a living sacrifice once again today.

I fully acknowledge that this is my reasonable service, considering all that You and Jesus and Your Holy Spirit have done for me. And having repented for my sins, I ask once again that You would draw me to Yourself:

• Give me a fresh hunger and a fervor for You.
• Convict me with so much conviction that I must needs arise from my bed to seek You every single morning and every night, early and late and long.
• Help me to be willing to do the work it takes to spend time with You, first and foremost before any other activities, every single day.
• Make me a person of prayer, and of Your Word, and even of fasting and praying in order to seek You and draw closer to You.
• Help me to hide Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against You.
• As Your Word says in Psalm 139, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24 NKJV).
• Let Your Word and Your Spirit burn in my heart once again like a fire in my bones.
• Help me to hunger and thirst after righteousness, for I shall be filled.
• Fill me once again with Your Spirit, Your fire, Your power, and Your glory.
• Let me love righteousness and hate lawlessness again, so that I will love what You love and hate what You hate.
• Help me, like Jesus, to only say what You say and do what You do.
• Fill me anew and afresh with Your river of living water flowing out of my belly.
• Help me to keep and guard my heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.
• For any sins I have gotten in the habit of committing, please wipe those habits, sins, and iniquities cleanly and completely out of my body, soul, and spirit, so that I hate those things and flee from every temptation.

Abba Father, I have backslidden for too long.

I’m coming back to You now, and I thank You for drawing me. Your Word says that no man can come to Jesus unless You draw that person. So, thank You for seeing me in my sin and pulling me back to Yourself. Thank You for loving me enough to chase after me like You have.

I’m so sorry I wandered from my love for You, God; but thank You for accepting me on this altar of repentance and restoration because of the blood of Jesus. Please change my heart and make me like You in all things.

Help me to love You, and You only, all the rest of my life, and never to wander away from my first love for You again. Thank You, Abba Father. Keep me as the apple of Your eye and hide me under the shadow of Your wings, and do not let me escape from Your hand–and help me never again to even try escaping.

Thank You, Abba Father. Thank You for rescuing me from backsliding. Thank You for saving my life. I give You all the praise.

In Jesus’ name I pray, amen and amen.”

Beloved, God is FOR you.

He loves you so much, even if you’ve been backsliding. But He is a good, good Father–and He is too good to leave you in that place of depravity, pain, discouragement, and sin. He has been drawing you to Himself all your life. And if you just prayed that prayer to stop backsliding, He will help you to seek Him first again.

God is good, dear one. He is worth it.

All the effort and love we can possibly ever invest in our relationship with Jesus is worth it. He is the One Who knows you best and still loves you most. And He is right there with you, to minister to you, encourage you, and put a new song in your heart.

Did this prayer to stop backsliding help you today? If so, leave a comment below!