“It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.” (Isaiah 59:2, NLT)
After a wedding, Cary approached the pastor who had led the ceremony. Cary was a part of the wedding party and had been around the pastor for two days during the setup, dress rehearsal, the wedding service, and reception. During that time, Cary had watched the pastor interact with people. He listened intently to the pastor’s message. Finally, he came to the pastor in his office. He sat down across from the pastor and said, “I have been away from church and God for a long time. During this weekend, I tried to reconnect with God, but I felt nothing. It’s as if God was not listening to me.” After just a moment, the pastor said, “Maybe that was your problem. You wanted God to listen instead of listening to God! The pastor then led Cary to the altar to repent for his sins, then to ask for God to be present with Cary. After some encouragement, he sent Cary off with a warning to spend some dedicated prayer time and gave him some scriptures to read. The pastor ended their time together by saying, “Now let’s see what happens!”
Cary was not sure anything different would occur. He had not noticed God speaking to him before the wedding. He could barely feel anything but a longing for spiritual meaning during the weekend. That prayer with the pastor, however, seemed to do something to his soul. It was as if there was a subtle difference in his thoughts. Then, as he read of the scriptures, he began to think more about his life’s meaning and his place in the world. It was not long before Cary felt God’s presence more and more and more! Six months later, Cary joined that church and began a long and wonderful relationship with God.
Why couldn’t Cary connect with God before that weekend? There may have been many reasons, but we may never know. Our scripture for today gives us a clue, however. The more that Cary’s life was “off the rails” in sin, the less he could sense or hear God. As mentioned in Isaiah 59:2, sins “cut you off from God”. Before that weekend, he was talking TO God. However, after his confession of sin (the removal of the stain of sin keeping Cary from God) and pastoral instruction, he began to talk WITH God. Only then was Cary able to reconnect with God and feel God’s Spirit working in his world.
I have conversed with people who had absolutely no feeling for God or God’s Spirit. When listening or participating in prayer, they didn’t feel anything. When they talked with God, they heard only a silence from Heaven in return. Why? All too often, their past sins ruined their relationship with God and damaged their soul. They are now numb to the Spirit. According to the scripture for today, at some point God decided “not to listen anymore”. Since they weren’t willing to be respectful to God, God left them to their sins until they were humble enough to repent of their sins and return to God’s good graces.
The scripture for today and experience have taught me that sins have a way of blocking one’s connection with God. A sinful lifestyle or the accumulations of sins in a person’s life tend to shut-down the relationship with God. Imagine if you were dating a person. While dating, you swore at them, treated them poorly, went out behind their back, and generally did things against that person. At what point would that person not want a relationship with you? God is much more full of grace and forgiveness, but if you show God no respect there will come a time when God leaves you to your own devices. You may feel God’s absence in your soul. Your might sense an emptiness in your spirit. However, you must truly repent of your sins in order to regain that relationship with God. You need to let go of that sinful lifestyle for God to listen and respond to your calls.
When Billy Graham, the great twentieth century evangelist, decided to believe in God, things did not go well at first. Years later, he wrote of that time in his life…. “The night I came to Christ, I didn’t have any tears. But later I went home and I looked out my window at the North Carolina sky and I cried over my sins. I said, “Oh, God, forgive me.” And the most wonderful peace swept over my soul. From that moment on, I’ve known that my sins were forgiven.” From that moment on, Billy Graham grew into a powerful force for God. But, did you notice that at first he did not feel peace with God? Early in that night, he did not sense the connection with God had changed. However, later that night when he cried over his sins and asked God to forgive him, everything changed. A real peace swept over his soul.
Sins damage or destroy your relationship with God. They block a connection with God. They cause God to move away from you, sometimes far away. They cause you to no longer hear God’s voice. Today, I’d like you to ponder the sins of your past. Are they forgiven? Have you ever completely turned them over to God? Have you ever shed tears of repentance in the hope that God would forgive your sins and reconnect with your heart? Are there some sins blocking your full and joyful connection with God? Have you kept God’s forgiveness from occurring? You will never have a beautiful relationship with the Divine if your sins are blocking His healing, and His voice can’t pierce through your deafness. God is waiting right now for a conversation WITH you. What’s keeping you from it?
Cary was not sure anything different would occur. He had not noticed God speaking to him before the wedding. He could barely feel anything but a longing for spiritual meaning during the weekend. That prayer with the pastor, however, seemed to do something to his soul. It was as if there was a subtle difference in his thoughts. Then, as he read of the scriptures, he began to think more about his life’s meaning and his place in the world. It was not long before Cary felt God’s presence more and more and more! Six months later, Cary joined that church and began a long and wonderful relationship with God.
Why couldn’t Cary connect with God before that weekend? There may have been many reasons, but we may never know. Our scripture for today gives us a clue, however. The more that Cary’s life was “off the rails” in sin, the less he could sense or hear God. As mentioned in Isaiah 59:2, sins “cut you off from God”. Before that weekend, he was talking TO God. However, after his confession of sin (the removal of the stain of sin keeping Cary from God) and pastoral instruction, he began to talk WITH God. Only then was Cary able to reconnect with God and feel God’s Spirit working in his world.
I have conversed with people who had absolutely no feeling for God or God’s Spirit. When listening or participating in prayer, they didn’t feel anything. When they talked with God, they heard only a silence from Heaven in return. Why? All too often, their past sins ruined their relationship with God and damaged their soul. They are now numb to the Spirit. According to the scripture for today, at some point God decided “not to listen anymore”. Since they weren’t willing to be respectful to God, God left them to their sins until they were humble enough to repent of their sins and return to God’s good graces.
The scripture for today and experience have taught me that sins have a way of blocking one’s connection with God. A sinful lifestyle or the accumulations of sins in a person’s life tend to shut-down the relationship with God. Imagine if you were dating a person. While dating, you swore at them, treated them poorly, went out behind their back, and generally did things against that person. At what point would that person not want a relationship with you? God is much more full of grace and forgiveness, but if you show God no respect there will come a time when God leaves you to your own devices. You may feel God’s absence in your soul. Your might sense an emptiness in your spirit. However, you must truly repent of your sins in order to regain that relationship with God. You need to let go of that sinful lifestyle for God to listen and respond to your calls.
When Billy Graham, the great twentieth century evangelist, decided to believe in God, things did not go well at first. Years later, he wrote of that time in his life…. “The night I came to Christ, I didn’t have any tears. But later I went home and I looked out my window at the North Carolina sky and I cried over my sins. I said, “Oh, God, forgive me.” And the most wonderful peace swept over my soul. From that moment on, I’ve known that my sins were forgiven.” From that moment on, Billy Graham grew into a powerful force for God. But, did you notice that at first he did not feel peace with God? Early in that night, he did not sense the connection with God had changed. However, later that night when he cried over his sins and asked God to forgive him, everything changed. A real peace swept over his soul.
Sins damage or destroy your relationship with God. They block a connection with God. They cause God to move away from you, sometimes far away. They cause you to no longer hear God’s voice. Today, I’d like you to ponder the sins of your past. Are they forgiven? Have you ever completely turned them over to God? Have you ever shed tears of repentance in the hope that God would forgive your sins and reconnect with your heart? Are there some sins blocking your full and joyful connection with God? Have you kept God’s forgiveness from occurring? You will never have a beautiful relationship with the Divine if your sins are blocking His healing, and His voice can’t pierce through your deafness. God is waiting right now for a conversation WITH you. What’s keeping you from it?