Sometimes, we may feel that God has left us and He isn’t coming back. That isn’t the case. This devotion look at how God comes to us to love us back into His fold.
Nuggets
- God does hurt when we don’t see ourselves as He sees us.
- It hurts Him when we don’t turn to Him for help.
- There is only one sin that He won’t forgive — denying Jesus is our Redeemer and accepting the free gift of grace and forgiveness.
- We just have to ask His forgiveness.
- God is bigger than all of our problems.
“The Lord also told Moses to tell the people of Israel, “You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19: 1-2 LB)
This is a verse I came across the day after the Lord came looking for me. You see, I had sinned, and I wasn’t sure how I should ask forgiveness.
I wasn’t sure I could resist the temptation if the situation presented itself again. I didn’t want to say, “Hey, Lord, I’m sorry,” if I was just going to go out and do it again.
So, I was going along – just going along. Everything had stopped – my daily quiet time, my prayer life, everything. I was beginning to wonder why one night He didn’t just say, “Sorry, dear. You can’t come knocking on my door anymore.”
Then one night the Lord came to me. But He didn’t tell me to hit the road.
Instead, God said I was His child and would always be His child. He said He had great things in store for me. He knew I didn’t think I was good enough for Him to waste His time on me. So, being the loving Father He is, He came to me.
God Came to Me Through Song
How did God come to me? I was looking through some music when I came across a song. The name of it is It Was Enough.
It Was Enough
Vocalist: Elaine Guthals
Pianist: Chris Vieth
God knew I was struggling with this problem. He knew I wanted to do His Will. He knew and I knew that I couldn’t overcome it alone.
Look at what the words in the song say.
- There is just so much bad stuff that it hides the good stuff.
- This is where I tend to focus.
- Even though I am a believer, I don’t feel like I am receiving all of God’s promises.
- But the problem is I am focusing on the sin not the forgiveness Giver.
So, God came to encourage me.
- God does hurt when we don’t see ourselves as He sees us.
- It hurts Him when we don’t turn to Him for help.
- There is only one sin that He won’t forgive — denying Jesus is our Redeemer and accepting the free gift of grace and forgiveness.
- We just have to ask His forgiveness.
- God is bigger than all of our problems.
The peace talked about in the song was given to me. Then I was able to ask His forgiveness. He made me the way I am – weaknesses and all.
God Came to Me Through His Word
But then God brought me to this verse. “… You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19: 2 LB).
That doesn’t mean God was going to condone my sin. He can’t do that.
But God knew I won’t be a spiritual being until I stand before Him in heaven. He wasn’t going to cut me off when I screw up.
He made me the way I am – weaknesses and all. But He wants me to grow from there — become more holy, become the saint that He has made me.
All I have to do is ask God’s forgiveness, and He’ll take me back every time. I just have to try to follow His Will.
Making the Connections
God comes to us in a variety of ways. He can come to us when we are looking for guidance in His Word — and sometimes even when we aren’t. He can use one of our friends, our coworkers, even a complete stranger to give us His message. He can use His Holy Spirit to talk to us when we feel no one else is around or cares.
God cares. He cares enough to come to us. As unfathomable as it is that the Sovereign God would come to us, He does. Relentlessly.
But how many times do we not forgive ourselves? We forget that “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Ps. 103: 12 NLT).
God has removed them — but we keep clinging to them. We don’t feel worthy of the forgiveness. Or Satan keeps tempting us because He knows He has “won” in the past with this sin.
How Do We Apply This?
What? You think that this is a one-time shot that happened over 30 years ago (when I originally wrote almost everything down to Making the Connections?
Remember Why Does God Call Us? He still comes looking for me.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
But did you see one of the verses I used in that devotion? God came to Jeremiah. “Now the word of the Lord came to me …” (Jer. 1: 4 RSV emphasis added). Jeremiah wasn’t seeking God.
God came to me because I was hurting. God came to Jeremiah because He had plans for Him. He will come to you, too.
God knows where each one of us is in our walk. He knows how Satan is attacking each of us and with what we are struggling.
Have you done that before? Have you been afraid to ask forgiveness because you were afraid that you couldn’t resist the temptation if the situation presented itself again?
“Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away” (Jas. 1: 14 NLT). Ooo, baby. That verse probably should be my verse for the year next year.
The temptation draws us away. God doesn’t leave us.
“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8: 38-39 CSB).
God isn’t going anywhere. He isn’t going to leave His disciples in the lurch.
No, that doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen to us. “You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment” (Ps. 66: 12 NKJV).
We have a loving Heavenly Father that will come to us. He loves us that much.
Forgiving Father. There are so many things that weigh us down each day. We are afraid, Lord – afraid You’ll cut us off from Your presence. We’re afraid that You’ll run out of patience with us. Your Word says You won’t, but Satan keeps telling us there could always be a first time. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive us because we’ve done wrong and forgive us when we’ve doubted You. Help us to overcome these problems. Help us overcome our unbelief and acknowledge that we can’t do that by ourselves. Lord, fill us with Your wonderful peace. Amen.
Elaine Guthals Ministries was founded
one year ago today!
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