As some of you all know, I’m an overcomer of food addiction.
And as those of you who have ever overcome something,
you also know that sometimes it can sneak attack and try to overtake you again.
And you fight.
So, this weekend has been one of those. It’s been a fighting weekend.
It started on my way out of town on a trip to minister.
Isn’t it ironic how the moments we need to have clean
pathways to hear the Lord the enemy comes to cloud and confuse? Not really.
It’s obvious. He isn’t sly.
Well. I was being attacked by this, and I stumbled a couple
times, but I got back up and repented and then would have peace again.
But, throughout this whole weekend, I was praying and really
seeking God for break through.
And Sunday morning, we have prayer at my church from 9-10 AM
before the service starts, and I was on my way to prayer, and I was just
talking to God while on my way and He said something that really opened my
eyes.
He said, “I don’t tell you not to sin because it’s against
what I say (although it is, and that should be enough), but because sin causes
separation from Me.”
“Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short that it cannot
save; nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
Isaiah 59:1-2
Now, “separation from God” as in… a cloudy lens to look
through, a distance, a lack of awareness of His nearness… those type
separations.
Not severed from Him completely.
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:38-39
That’s just beautiful all by itself.
Yesterday I had a conversation with my friend Makenzie, and
she was talking about someone she knows and how that person was sharing how they
had felt like they were following a list of rules concerning following the Lord
and Makenzie was telling me how she responded, and she said,
“That’s not how it
should be at all, we don’t not sin because we’re told not to, but because the
idea of hurting the Fathers heart should hurt us.”
And that’s so real, even to
this whole situation.
To every cycle, every addiction, every desire or slant to
want to sin; it shouldn’t be about the feeling obligated not to sin, but the
desire to be so near to God that the idea of having the slightest distance, the
slightest withdraw of His voice, the slightest pull from His nearness, that it
should completely push us in the opposite direction of sin.
It’s like this phrase I heard once that I use to talk about
sexual purity.
My thing isn’t how close to the line can I get without
pushing my boundaries, but how far away from the line can I get.
I hear about people who can kiss and whatnot while dating
and they are okay with that, and that’s totally fine if that’s what you feel is
your conviction, but because of my past and my heart, I’d rather not kiss at
all then maybe stumble into going further.
Why chance the distance?
Why chance the numbness to His
presence?
Because, let me tell you.
If you have ever experienced His
nearness, you would never want to experience His distance.
And if you’d ever heard His voice, you’d never want to
chance His silence.
And if you’ve ever felt His love, you’d never want to numb
that.
That good thing, that simply has no name, because it’s just
that holy.
It is just that perfect.
