Sin Separates Us From God

Have you ever felt  disconnected from someone? Someone that you were really close with and then out of nowhere it just seems like you’re very disconnected from that person and you have no idea how you got to that place especially with someone who you once felt so close with. What if that Person was God…I find myself feeling very close with God at times and then other times I’ve found myself feeling like I’m very disconnected and stuck in a sense in trying to reach Him. I find myself wondering well how in the heck did I get to that place when God and I use to be so tight??? What’s the answer? Isaiah 59:2, “But your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear you ” (NIV). Sin separates us from God. The more time you spend dabbling in sin you find yourself comfortable in it and before you know it you’re so far away from God and you have no idea how you got there. Think about it from the stance of a relationship. Say you’re dating a guy and he is constantly doing things that are wrong, and he knows it won’t make you happy, but he goes out and does it anyways because he knows that you will forgive him because you always have in the past. After awhile the two of you are going to grow apart; you will get fed up with his crap. Before he knows it you no longer want to deal with him because of him constantly hurting you and expecting you to always be there to forgive him after all he has done wrong. So the water has run dry and you’re ready to throw in the towel because you don’t understand how this person can say they love you yet their actions are contrary to everything they say.

We cannot use God’s  grace and His mercy as an excuse to remain in sin. Yes, God will forgive all who sin and come before Him with a repentant heart but as Jesus was teaching all throughout the new testament, He constantly advised people after their repentance to “go and sin no more.” The beautiful thing about God is that He loves us enough that in spite of our sinful ways He gave us His son Jesus Christ to redeem us back to Him. In spite of me, and all that I’ve done wrong, He loved me enough to allow me another opportunity to be in rightful standing with Him. If sin separates us from God why should we continue to play with it. It’s not enough just to go to church, just to sing, just to quote scripture; God wants our hearts and all of it. He doesn’t want His people playing church anymore. He desires for us to have a real and rightful relationship with Him. He doesn’t care about what you’ve done because He can create a new passage from your past. He wants us to turn from our sinful nature and come into having a rightful relationship with Him. There’s absolutely nothing too heavy for God; He knows all the good, the bad, and the ugly of our lives. He knows about the fornication, the adultery, the lying, the drug use, the alcoholism, the abortion, the stealing, the everything…and it doesn’t matter. He just wants our hearts. We can’t have a real relationship with Him and continue in sin knowing that sin separates us from God. Christ didn’t die in vain. He died on the cross for our sins not to condemn us but to redeem us back to our Heavenly Father.

Self reflection is so important because it’s pretty difficult to identify the areas of our lives that are keeping us from God when we don’t acknowledge the areas that we struggle with that hinder us in our walk. A few weeks ago I was reading Galatians 5:7, “You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?” (NIV). Who or what took you away from running the good race? Some days may be a sprint, some days a jog, other days it may barely be a crawl but keep on in the race as those that endure to the end shall be saved (Matthew 24:13). We can’t continue in sin and believe that God will be okay with it and just keep on playing in the world and coming back to God to forgive us when we need some loving. Remember that just as we get fed up and frustrated in relationships because of people’s actions so does God. We don’t want to keep playing Russian roulette with our lives and thinking “oh God will still be there to forgive me next week.” What if you don’t make it next week, where will that leave your soul…