Sanmi Dawodu
How to Come Back to God After Falling Away: 7 Biblical Steps That Actually Work
40 Days of Prayer · Week 1: Repentance & Cleansing · Day 1 — this post opens the series. When you finish, continue with Day 2: How to Receive God’s Forgiveness Completely.
If you are reading this, something inside you is already moving toward home. Perhaps you have felt spiritually distant for weeks, months, or even years. Perhaps you are not sure whether God still wants you back. This article walks you through seven practical, Bible-anchored steps for how to come back to God after falling away — not as religious performance, but as a genuine return to the Father who has been watching the road for you. You can start this journey today, exactly as you are.
“Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.” — Hosea 6:1 (KJV)
How to Come Back to God After Falling Away: Quick Summary
For those who need an immediate answer, here is the path Scripture maps out:
- Acknowledge your spiritual distance honestly — stop minimising the gap
- Make a firm decision and move toward God today, not when you feel ready
- Confess specifically — name what has created the distance
- Receive God’s forgiveness and welcome by grace, not by earning it
- Rebuild the spiritual habits that sustain closeness to God
- Return to Christian community for accountability and encouragement
- Guard your heart against future drift by placing deliberate safeguards around known vulnerabilities
Key Scripture: Joel 2:12 — “Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.”
A Word from Sanmi Dawodu to the Drifting Heart
If you are searching for how to come back to God after falling away, you are not alone — and you are not too late. Many sincere believers go through seasons of spiritual drift. The Bible does not treat this as a surprise; it treats it as a pattern that God already has a remedy for. The remedy is not more religious effort. It is a genuine, Spirit-led return to the God who has never stopped loving you.
Every spiritual journey begins — or restarts — at the same place: the Father’s door. Whether you have walked with God for decades or have never seriously walked with Him at all, the first question Scripture raises is the same question God asked Adam in Genesis 3:9: “Where art thou?” Today, I want to walk with you through the Biblical path of return. Not performance. Not guilt-driven reform. A real homecoming.
The Hebrew word used throughout the prophets for this kind of return is shuv — to turn around, to change direction, to come back. It is the same root behind the whole concept of repentance. Before any believer can pray powerfully, intercede effectively, or walk with clarity in their God-given purpose, we must first answer His call to return. This is not about cataloguing every wrong you have done. It is about acknowledging where you have drifted — and today, the drifting ends.
What Does the Bible Say About Coming Back to God After Falling Away?
The Bible speaks about returning to God with extraordinary consistency, tenderness, and urgency across both Testaments. This is not a minor theme — it is one of the great heartbeats of Scripture. Here are key verses that speak directly to the experience of falling away and finding your way back:
- Hosea 14:4 — “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.” God does not merely tolerate the returning backslider; He heals the very thing that caused the drift.
- Joel 2:12 — “Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” God’s call is whole-hearted, not half-hearted — but the initiative is His invitation, not your effort.
- Isaiah 44:22 — “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.” Notice the order: God’s redemptive act comes before the call to return, not after.
- James 4:8 — “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” A simple promise with no expiry date and no list of prerequisites beyond the movement itself.
- Lamentations 3:40 — “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.” Written at the lowest point of Israel’s national history, this verse shows that honest self-examination is the doorway to corporate and personal restoration.
- Hosea 6:1 — “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us.” Even the painful consequences of drift are not outside God’s redemptive reach.
- Luke 15:20 — “And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” The clearest portrait in all of Scripture of how God responds to the one coming back.
These verses are not isolated comfort texts. Together they build a consistent picture: returning to God after falling away is always possible, always welcomed, and always initiated by His grace drawing you before your own willpower carries you.
How Do You Know If You Have Drifted Away from God?
Spiritual drift is rarely dramatic at the start. It almost never begins with an announcement. It begins with small, quiet absences — prayer that grows shorter, Scripture that goes unopened, worship that becomes routine rather than relational. By the time most people recognise the distance, it already feels significant.
Israel’s pattern in the Old Testament is the universal pattern of the human heart. Deuteronomy 8 describes it with sobering precision: God blesses His people, His people prosper, their hearts become full, and they forget the Lord. Drift rarely begins with rebellion. It begins with fullness — with comfort, with achievement, with the subtle numbness of a life that no longer feels desperate for God.
Common signs that you have been drifting include:
- Prayer has grown quiet or completely stopped
- Scripture reading has become irregular or absent
- Worship feels mechanical rather than meaningful
- Sin that once troubled your conscience no longer does
- You have withdrawn from Christian fellowship or accountability
- You feel spiritually dry, purposeless, or numb
- The thought of God provokes guilt or distance rather than intimacy
If several of these are present, you are not beyond hope — you are simply in the far country. And the far country has a road that leads home.
The Anatomy of Spiritual Drift: Peace, Power, Purpose, and Joy
Spiritual drift is never free. The prodigal son in Luke 15 “wasted his substance with riotous living” — and every believer who drifts from God pays a similar cost, even if no one else can see it clearly. Consider what we lose when we live at a distance from God:
Peace
We were designed for the peace of God that passes understanding — the shalom that can only be sustained in proximity to God. Distance from Him produces a low-grade spiritual restlessness that no achievement, relationship, or distraction can cure. The anxiety many believers carry is not a personality flaw; it is often the sound of a soul that was made for fellowship with God and is living without it.
Power
The anointing of the Holy Spirit diminishes in a life lived at a distance from its Source. Samson is the tragic portrait of a man who did not know the Spirit had departed from him — still going through the motions of ministry, still performing the role, but empty of the presence that had made it powerful. Backsliding does not only cost you intimacy with God; it costs you effectiveness in His purposes.
Purpose
“I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go,” says Psalm 32:8. Divine direction requires divine proximity. Drift from God is always drift from your God-given destiny, because the One who holds the blueprint for your life is the One you are moving away from.
Joy
After his sin with Bathsheba, David did not pray “restore my ministry” or “restore my throne.” He prayed, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation” (Psalm 51:12). Joy — the deep, resilient, sustaining kind — is the exclusive possession of those who live near God. Happiness can be manufactured elsewhere. Joy cannot.
The Father Who Runs Toward You: Luke 15:20 Explained
Jesus told the story of the prodigal son not as an exotic tale of exceptional wickedness but as a portrait of the ordinary human journey. The son did not leave because he hated his father. He left because he wanted more than the father’s house seemed to offer — independence, experience, self-determination. His journey away from home is the journey every human heart makes when it decides it can manage without God.
“But when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” — Luke 15:17 (KJV)
The turning point in the prodigal’s story is three words: he came to himself. The return to God always begins with a return to reality — the honest acknowledgment that the far country has nothing that truly satisfies, and that the Father’s house has everything.
What happens next is one of the most extraordinary moments in all of Scripture:
“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.” — Luke 15:20 (KJV)
In first-century Middle Eastern culture, it was considered deeply undignified for a patriarch to run. Running in public meant gathering your robes, exposing your legs — it was a social humiliation. Yet this father, who is unmistakably God in Jesus’s parable, saw his son while he was still a great way off and ran. He did not wait for the boy to reach the door. He did not send a servant to check whether the return was genuine. He ran.
The robe, the ring, the sandals, the feast — these were all the father’s initiatives, not the son’s achievements. The son came home rehearsing a speech about being made a hired servant. The father was not interested in the speech. He was interested in the son. This is the Gospel.
“The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” — Jeremiah 31:3 (KJV)
God is not waiting for you to clean yourself up before coming home. He is not standing at the door with a checklist of conditions. He is on the road, looking for you, running toward you. Backsliding never puts you beyond His reach — only beyond your own comfort. The very fact that you are reading this is evidence that His Spirit is already drawing you back.
How to Come Back to God After Falling Away: 7 Biblical Steps That Actually Work
Returning to God is not complicated — but it is honest work. Here is the path drawn directly from Scripture, structured so you can act on it today:
Step 1: Acknowledge the Distance Honestly
Stop minimising the gap. The prodigal did not say “I’ve just been busy” or “life got in the way.” He said: “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son” (Luke 15:21). That kind of honesty is uncomfortable — and it is exactly where restoration begins. You cannot find your way back from a place you are not willing to admit you are in.
“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.” — Lamentations 3:40
Step 2: Make the Decision and Move — Today
“He arose, and came to his father.” The prodigal did not wait until he felt more spiritually prepared, more emotionally stable, or more deserving. He made a decision and he moved. Return to God begins with a decision expressed through actual, tangible movement — toward prayer, toward Scripture, toward worship, toward honest conversation with God. Do not wait for the feeling to come before you take the step. Take the step, and let the feeling follow.
Step 3: Confess Specifically
Vague repentance produces vague restoration. There is a real difference between saying “Lord, forgive me for all my sins” and sitting quietly with God, naming honestly what has created the distance between you. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13). Be specific. Be unflinching. This is not about self-flagellation — it is about the kind of honest transparency that opens the way for genuine healing.
Step 4: Receive, Do Not Earn
The prodigal intended to negotiate his way back into the household as a hired servant — a lesser status that his guilt told him was all he deserved. But the Father would not hear it. Grace does not rehire the prodigal; it reinstates him as a son. You cannot earn your way back to God. You can only receive your way back. This is the part that trips up many returning believers — the instinct to perform penance, to prove the return is genuine before accepting the welcome. Resist that instinct. The welcome is already extended. Receive it.
If guilt or a sense of unworthiness is making it difficult to actually receive God’s forgiveness, continue into Day 2: How to Receive God’s Forgiveness Completely — the next step after returning is learning to fully receive what He has already given.
Step 5: Receive the Father’s Welcome — and Refuse False Humility
The robe, the ring, the sandals — accept them. There is a kind of false humility that says “I’m not worthy of full restoration” and insists on remaining at a lesser level of sonship. This is not humility; it is an unwillingness to receive grace. Of course you are not worthy. Neither was the prodigal. Worthiness was never the qualification — return was. When God welcomes you back, the appropriate response is not to negotiate a lesser welcome. It is to receive it with gratitude and let it reshape your understanding of who He is.
Step 6: Rebuild the Spiritual Habits That Sustain Closeness
Returning to God is not a single moment — it is also the beginning of a rebuilt way of life. The practices that close the distance between you and God are not optional extras for especially devoted Christians. They are the rhythms of relationship — the spiritual equivalent of spending time with someone you love.
Practically, this means:
- Re-establishing prayer: Start with honesty rather than eloquence. Even a ten-minute daily conversation with God that is real is worth more than a polished hour that is performance. This guide on staying consistent in prayer and Bible reading offers a practical framework for rebuilding that habit.
- Restoring Scripture reading rhythms: You do not need to read ten chapters a day. Begin with one passage read slowly and prayerfully. Let it speak. Renewing your mind with Scripture is one of the most powerful tools available to a returning believer, because it gradually reshapes how you think about yourself, God, and the world.
- Returning to worship: Whether privately at home or in a church community, regular worship reorients the heart. It reminds you — and your own emotions — of who God actually is, not who your guilt imagines Him to be.
- Reconnecting with Christian community: Isolation accelerates backsliding; community helps prevent it. Find believers who will pray with you, not just for you, and who will ask the honest questions that accountability requires. Being consistent in your Christian walk is significantly easier when you are not trying to do it alone.
These practices are not a ladder you climb to re-earn God’s favour. They are the natural expressions of a restored relationship — the same way any healthy relationship involves regular contact, honest communication, and shared life.
Step 7: Guard Against Future Drift
The prodigal’s return is famous. His re-drifting, if any, is not recorded in Scripture — and part of the wisdom this story invites is taking seriously what caused the first departure so it does not happen again. Drift almost always has identifiable causes: a specific relationship, a habitual sin, a period of isolation, a season of success that reduced felt dependence on God, or a wound that was never brought to God for healing.
Practical safeguards include:
- Naming the specific pattern or vulnerability that led to the drift — not vaguely, but honestly
- Establishing at least one accountability relationship with a mature, trustworthy believer
- Building spiritual disciplines that are sustainable through seasons of both spiritual fullness and spiritual dryness
- Learning to recognise the early signs of drift — in your prayer life, your attitude toward Scripture, your emotional connection to worship — before the distance becomes significant
Building spiritual disciplines that actually stick is not about willpower — it is about wisdom: structuring your life so that closeness to God is the path of least resistance, not the path that requires heroic effort. One of the most powerful structures available is consistent, accountable prayer. If you want a daily framework that builds that kind of habit, the 40 Days & 40 Nights of Prayer series is designed precisely for that purpose.
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” — Isaiah 1:18 (KJV)
How to Get Right with God After Backsliding: Practical Accountability Steps
There is an important distinction between the moment of returning to God and the ongoing process of getting right with God after backsliding. The moment of return is a decision. Getting right — rebuilding the full reality of a restored relationship — is a process that unfolds over days and weeks. Here is how to make that process concrete:
Confession Before God and, Where Appropriate, Before Others
“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one
