🌿Breathe Truth🌿
“Listen! The Lord’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is His ear too deaf to hear you call. It’s your sins that have cut off you off from God.” —Isaiah 59:1
“Don’t you see what they are doing throughout the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?….. They pour out liquid offerings to their other idols! Am I the one they are hurting?” asks the Lord. “Most of all they hurt themselves.” —Jeremiah 7:17-19
🌿Believe Truth🌿
In our journey with God, at times we struggle to feel God’s presence in our lives. He seems distant and far away. Unreachable and unavailable. But what is the real story behind this? Is it God or is it us?
Remote Faith. When we slowly distance ourselves from God. Like the rooms in a house, we start to close doors. One door here. Another door there. A relationship that doesn’t honor God. Let’s close this door so God won’t know. A decision that doesn’t uphold God’s character. Let’s shut that door so God won’t see. When our relationships and decisions compromise our faith, we close ourselves off from God so that the Holy Spirit can’t convict us of unaligning our life with truth. Closed doors become barriers to God. Our closed doors and sins make God remote.
Removed Faith. When we pack up and move away from God. Because we have a newfound priority that usurps God’s Throne on our lives. Let’s move to another house. Because we have replaced God with an idol made out of our own hands and heart. Let’s move to another location. We may still believe there’s a God, but He is no longer the central heartbeat of our home. We find a new residence to worship and live as we please and satisfy the demands of our idol. Relocated homes remove God as the most significant person in our life. Our relocated home and sins remove our first love commitment to God.
Judah’s persistent idolatry resulted in a remote faith and then a removed faith. God declares that their idol participation hurt them more than anyone else. The reality is this: we hurt ourselves the most when we close doors in our lives from God and when we move away from God altogether.
Let’s re-open doors in our lives that we have closed off to God. Let’s move back to our home where God was our first love.
God’s arms are not too weak to welcome us back. God’s ears are earnestly ready and waiting to hear our prayers when we call out to Him.
Don’t settle for a Remote or Removed Faith. Be all in. Go for the Real Truth.