By accepting Jesus as our Saviour, we become God’s people, but are we always God’s people ? Or are there occasions where we stray too far from God and feel that we are no longer His people ?
There are many things that take us away from God, but as Paul reminds us in Romans 8:35,38-39 that nothing can separate us from God’s love for us. As Psalm 139 says there is nowhere where we can be without God’s presence.
What takes us away from God ?
Firstly our own Sin, this makes us feel ashamed to be in the presence of God in the same way as Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:8.
In addition to this our lifestyle in this world can build barriers between us and God. We pursue treasures on earth and not in Heaven (Matthew 6:19-24), this can be money, clothes, a big house or car, things that help us put ourselves on a pedestal and make us think that we can do things without God.
Also apathy can build walls between us and God. At present ours is a very lacklustre world, where many people are apathetic to each other and events that are happening in the world, we switch off.
If we do this, then we will not notice or help those in need around us, as we are commanded in Galatians 6:2.
Then, when we are being judged and Jesus says to us "I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was naked and you did not clothe me" what are we going to be able to say in response ?
To counter this, we need to follow the advice of 2 Chronicles 7: 14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land".
This separation between God and us that we have caused is not just a feature of the twentieth century, there are many examples in the Bible.
For example, Saul was appointed as King by God and anointed by Samuel in 1 Samuel 10, but he becomes so caught up in his own self importance, and the acts that he and his army have performed (with Gods help) that he losses sight of God. This results in Samuel being sent to anoint David as King in 1 Samuel 16.
Earlier on the Israelites after being led by God out of Egypt and through several battles find themselves at Mount Sinai, they begin to lose track of their faith and build an idol to lead them instead (Exodus 32).
Unfortunately however, these examples of losing sight of God are not all confined to the Old Testament. In Acts 5:1-11 we read the story on Ananias and Sapphira, whose love of money put a wedge between them and God. So much so that they lied to God, this resulted in their deaths.
Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans, that all people are guilty of sin and separating themselves from God in Romans 3:9-20.
How then do we bridge the gap that we have made between us and God ?
Firstly we need to realise our mistakes and repent of them before God, and heal any wounds that have been caused by our actions. Then we need to accept God’s forgiveness through grace (Romans 3:24) and return to being his people. This echo’s the words of 2 Chronicles 7:14 that we have read earlier.
In conclusion, we will always be Gods people, as he has created each of us and knows each of us better than we know ourselves (Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:5).
However our own actions and lack of humility, along with the ‘easy’ life provided by God’s bounty may cause us to lose sight of God and focus on our own self worth, and thus putting a wall between us and God, making us no longer a people of God.
Yet God has been gracious and loving in His provision for his people and has offered us a way back through the death of His own son Jesus Christ (John 3:16), and through Gods grace and our repentance we can rebuild the relationship between us and God.
