“Look! Listen: God’s arm is not amputated He can still save. God’s ears are not stopped up – He can still hear. There’s nothing wrong with God: the wrong is in you. Your wrongheaded lives caused a split between you and God.” (Isaiah 59:1-2 MSG)
My husband and I have been talking about this a lot lately; how sin assembles a wall between us and God in an instant. Our Creator-Sustainer doesn’t stand far off, His arm isn’t too short. We are the ones who asked for space by our actions, who’s sin sent up a stone barricade between us and our God. We step away from His commandments, we go our own route and then wonder why it’s painful, why we can’t feel Him at our side any longer. Adam and Eve are the poster children of this phenomenon, but we’ve all followed in their footsteps.
The bad news is, the longer we sin, the thicker the wall becomes. We begin to believe that it can never come down, that we can never be restored to fellowship and favor with God again. We feel condemned to live in spiritual isolation forever. The good news is, we are wrong. The stones will tumble the moment we practice repentance. When we can turn from our sin and towards our Lord, the wall disintegrates, dusted away as if it’s a key character in an Avengers movie. The insurmountable obstacle is eliminated and we can come close to our good, gracious God again.
So where are you this morning? Are your prayers bouncing? Do you feel far off? Does His arm feel too short?
Perhaps you already know the sin that has snagged your soul. Have the courage to confess it. But what if it’s sin you can’t see? Sometimes the Holy Spirit’s spotlight will light up the issue, and in a flash we’ll know why the wall is there, invisible but felt. Often our sin has been justified, rationalized away as nothing, but the effects of our choice are apparent. The evidence has piled up between us and our Creator and the consequences are uncomfortable. The separation from our God is palpable.
Let the Spirit search your heart today. Give Him room to speak anew. Open your ears to hear what He might say and be quick to confess when He highlights a problem. Be restored to true intimacy with the Father once more.
“Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong – then guide me on the road to eternal life.”
(Psalm 139:23-24 MSG)
“Make this your common practice: confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so the you can live together whole and healed.”
(James 5:16 MSG)
Lord, we don’t want to live broken, behind walls when it comes to You. We want to walk in fellowship and favor. We long to return to Eden, to true intimacy with our Creator. We see now how repentance tears away our walls. May we have the courage to search our hearts daily.
Keep us in a close proximity to You. Amen.