What to Do When You are Far From God, Part 5 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

Subscribe to the Time With God podcast

Transcript

Good morning.

We’ve been looking all week at this beautiful theme of what to do when you are far from God. That may not sound like a beautiful theme, and you may look at your own life and say, ‘Well, I’m far from God. I’ve never given God a place in my life.’ Or maybe ‘I remember when God was front and centre in my life, but I’ve gone so far away from Him. And when I look at my life, I know I’ve made a mess of things. I need God back in my life.’

Well, what are the steps to getting right with God? That’s what we’ve been looking at all week. On Monday, we looked at step one, which is to recognise that you need God. And Jesus told a story about a young man who went far away from his father and ended up being reconciled as kind of a parable of our lives when we move away from God and then are made right with Him again, and the first step in that young man’s life was to recognise that he’d tried to push his father away, but he’d only made a mess of his own life and how much better things were for the people in his father’s house.

Step number 2 – he came to his father on his father’s terms, and this is what you have to do – come to God on God’s terms. Come to God and acknowledge the mess you make of your life when you do it on your own and how much you need Him. Ask Him to come into your brokenness and bring healing and wholeness.

Step number 3, accept God’s love for you. When that son started to come back to his father with his prepared speech of how he was coming on his father’s terms.

He was still a long way away when his father recognised him and started running. He wanted his son to know how much he loved him. When he found him, he flung his arms around him, kissed his neck. ‘Ah, son, I’m so glad you’re home.’ His son started to stammer out his prepared speech, and the Father just cut in and said to his servants, ‘Bring the best robe,’ the father’s robe. ‘Bring the ring that represents being a part of our family again.’ ‘Bring the shoes for his feet.’ He restored him at his own expense.

And this is step number 4. Receive God’s grace. God’s grace means God gives you what you don’t deserve. You know you don’t deserve it. Jesus died on the cross so that there would be forgiveness for you. He paid the penalty. He took even the anger of the Father that you deserve so that that could be wiped away. And when the Father sees you, He’s ready to receive you and accept you. So receive God’s grace. Just say thank you, God, for doing for me what I could not do for myself. I was in a desperate place I couldn’t get out of and you have made a way for me to be right with you again at your own expense. Thank you. Receive God’s forgiveness. You may feel like you’ve done so much that there’s no way God wants to see you. He does want to see you. In fact, the moment you decide I’m going to make things right with God, he’s running down the road to throw his arms around you. That’s his heart towards you. Not folding his arms and tapping his toe and thinking, well, I can’t wait to give him a piece of my mind. No, that’s gone, that’s taken care of at the cross of Jesus. God is ready to embrace you and welcome you, receive His forgiveness, receive His grace in your life. The apostle Paul says in one place, where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more. God’s grace is bigger. No matter what you’ve done. His grace is bigger.

Hope 103.2 is proudly supported by

Step number 5 in getting right with God when you find that you are far from God is this: once you have received God’s forgiveness, God’s grace, God’s love for you, step number 5, don’t listen to those who still want to judge you for the things that you have done that God has forgiven you for. Don’t listen to them.

There’ll be people who don’t want to do what God has done and run to you with forgiveness and grace, who want to hold over you those things that you’ve done. Don’t listen to them, including yourself.

Because there’ll be that voice in your head that keeps telling you, you’re such a bad person, you’re not worthy of this. Don’t listen to that. Listen to the voice of God. When that son came back to his father, his older brother, who’d stayed with his father, was really angry that the father accepted him back. He tried to tell the father, that’s not right. You shouldn’t do that. I’m the one who stayed with you. He didn’t. You shouldn’t be throwing this feast for him. And the father’s answer – son, you are always with me. All that is mine is yours, but it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this. Your brother was dead and is alive. He was lost and is found, and that is you when you get right with God.

I’m John North.

Feature image: CanvaPro