WHEN GOD SEEMS FAR
AWAY
From the Inbox of
brother bob...
Dear Brother Bob,
I have a prayer
request. I have not been a good Christian lately and God is convicting
me. I am not sure how to change, but I know I want to. Please pray
that I find the time in my life for God's word and presence. It seems like
satan knows just the right buttons to push to turn our attention away from
God. I have so many other problems that I am not sure if I need to fix
them first or fix my relationship with Him first. I am just really
confused and God's voice doesn't sound real to me right now. I will
appreciate any help you can give me very much....Sincerely,
D
Dear
D,
As it is with many prayer
requests, sometimes we hold the key to the answer of our own prayers. This is
one of those times.
The fact that the Holy Spirit is
moving you to change is a good sign. Now the thing to do is follow the leading
of the Holy Spirit and turn away from whatever it is that you are doing that
offends God, and promise Him and yourself that you aren't going to do that
anymore. Here are a few verses to help you put this in
perspective...
1) Make the restoration of your relationship with Christ
your FIRST PRIORITY. Once your relationship with Him is restored, then He
will start straightening out the rest of your life and
priorities. {18} If I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:
{19} But
verily God hath heard me;
he hath
attended to the voice of my prayer.
{20}
Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer,
nor his mercy from
me.
Psa 66:18-20 (KJV)
But seek
ye FIRST the kingdom of
God,
and his
righteousness;
and all these
things shall be added unto you.
Mat 6:33 (KJV)
2) Search your soul and let God show you what it is that you are
doing that He is displeased with. It is often the testimony of people who have
unconfessed sin in their heart that the "heavens seem like brass, and my prayers
just seem to bounce off the ceiling". This is because God cannot look on sin nor have fellowship with a sinner.
Your position of sonship is still intact and unbroken, but your relatioinship of
friendship with God is broken.
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me:
Psa 66:18 (KJV)
And when ye spread forth your
hands,
I will hide mine eyes from you:
yea, when ye make many prayers, I
will not hear:
your hands are full of blood.
{16} Wash you, make you
clean;
put away the evil of your
doings from before mine eyes;
cease to do
evil;
Isa 1:15-16 (KJV)
{23} Search me, O
God, and know my heart:
try me, and know my
thoughts:
{24} And see
if there be any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the
way everlasting.
Psa 139:23-24 (KJV)
{8} If we say that
we have no sin,
we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
{9} If we
confess our sins,
he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:8-9 (KJV)
3) Decide to turn away from the
sinfull activity that is offending God, once and for all, and go in a new
direction, God's direction. This is what the word "repent" means..turn around
and go in a different direction. ...go, and sin no
more.
John 8:11b (KJV)
4) Use the principle of "replacement" so that your life can be
renewed... replace your old way of thinking or acting that you learned from the
world, or were drawn to by your flesh, or were tempted to do by the
devil..replace all the old things with God's new things such as you find in His
Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to point out to you what He wants you to change from
His Word, and then change it...one by one, one by one, and over a period of
time, your life will grow to maturity.
I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God,
which is your
reasonable service.
{2} And be not
conformed to this world:
but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove
what is that
good, and acceptable, and
perfect, will of God.
Rom 12:1-2 (KJV)
5) Remember always that if you
have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you now have eternal life, that no one
can take away from you....
eternal life means, "life
that goes on forever". It is not temporary or on and off..it is permanent and
eternal. If you sin, you do not lose your eternal life... you just lose your
friendship with God, until you repent and confess and turn away from the sin,
and He forgives you. Then you are once again restored to friendship or
fellowship with Him.
And this is the
record, that God hath given to us eternal life,
and this life is in
his Son.
{12} He that
hath the Son hath life;
and he that
hath not the Son of God hath not life.
{13}
These things have I written unto you
that believe on the
name of the Son of God;
that ye may
know that ye have eternal life,
and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:11-13 (KJV)
I hope that this has helped you
put your problem into God's perspective.
God bless you as you follow
Him.
in Christ...brother
bob........<><
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