What to Do When You are Far from God: Part 1 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

Subscribe to the Time With God podcast

Transcript

Good morning. You may be on the road already, you may just be waking up, but I’m here to help you on your spiritual journey.

Every weekday morning at this time we take just a few minutes to read the Bible and see what God has to say that is relevant to our lives. We follow a theme for the week, and this week I want to talk with you on the theme when you are far from God.

Maybe as you’re listening you say, well, that’s me right now in my life. Maybe you’ve never been religious, or maybe you are a Christian and you feel like you’re wandering far from God. God is no longer in the centre of your life. Well, this week is for you. When you’re far from God. The fact is, of course, God is near us all the time, just waiting for us to make things right with Him.

But we can be far from God, not in space or not in access to Him, but relationally far away from Him, spiritually far away from Him, and there can be all sorts of reasons for that. I want to give you each day a step in moving to being right with God in your life.

Step number one, when you find that you’re far from God, is this: recognise that you need God.

All this week I want to look at the story that Jesus told one time about a son who went far away from his father, and Jesus’ story is really about people who go far away from God.

Here’s what Jesus said.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

Luke chapter 15 starting in verse 11 in the Bible, and he said:

There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the share of the property that is coming to me. He didn’t wait for his father to die. He wanted it now.

And he divided his property between them.

Not many days later, the younger son gathered all that he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need.

So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, he was so hungry. But no one gave him anything. He wasn’t even allowed to eat that.

Well, it says then when he came to himself – some translations put it – when he came to his senses, he said, ‘how many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger.’

Well, he really hit the bottom, didn’t he?

And sometimes you have to hit rock bottom in your life before you remember God and before you turn to God. I wonder if you’re listening this morning and that’s you. You’ve really come to the end of yourself. You feel desperate. You feel hopeless. You don’t know where to turn. I want to say to you that’s when you need to turn to God.

God is there. Come to your senses. Remember that you have a Creator who loves you and cares for you. This man remembered the goodness of his Father. He came to his senses and said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread. But I, his son, perish here with hunger.’ He realised that he was foolish to stay away from God in his life, that in his time of need he should be turning to God, and this is really your first step back to God, is just coming to that realisation.

I want to be the master of my own life, but I’m not doing very well at that. I was made for God, and I need to go back to God. That realisation is your first step back to God. Are you at that point today?

Then stop, take stock of your life, and recognise – I need God.

I’m John North.

Feature image: CanvaPro