Stop Running Away

There is no worse feeling for a Christian than to feel himself stranded from our Communion with God. However, let us face something: the only thing that can strand us from His Communion is our practice of sin. When we focus in our human nature, we neglect the divine nature and we start caring more about the old man, instead of nurturing the spiritual man in us (Romans 8, Colossians 3). It is the Third Law of Newton in a nutshell: every action has a reaction; or like the OG Paul said it:

⁷ Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. (Gal. 6:7, NLT) (Yeah, Paul said it first. Sorry, Isaac.)

Closeness to God means farness from sin. Closeness to sin equals farness from God. Simple.

When we sin, we can feel the weight of our conscience pointing at us, the weight of the guilt, the shame and the remorse. Christians are sure that they will know the rebuke of the Holy Spirit in their hearts. However, that same guilt and shame lead us to get away from God, instead of going toward Him, looking for repentance.

Why do we tend to run like scared kids being caught ringing the neighbor’s doorbell?

That same guilt and shame make us to get tangled in a cocoon, built by the same feelings of despair that made Adam and Eve to hide behind the bushes (Gen. 3). That cocoon is a false haven, which keep us from questioning our own faith, our own relationship with God and our own spirituality; and whispers to our ears that everything is fine as long as we “don’t get caught”. Silly us. That same guilt and shame make us doubt of God’s forgiveness. Sometimes, we even fear the consequences of our actions more than we actually grieve for our disobedience against God. We tremble by the idea of falling into the hands of the Living God. We condemn ourselves over our transgression, and we try to mend the wound by ourselves, like if we could get even with God by our actions; and that’s a big sin by its own.

God sees what we have been doing. He knows when we aren’t living according to His will (remember, the Holy Spirit grieve when we live the opposite way of God’s way). God grieves when His children sin, but He, as the Merciful and Forgiving Father He is, He calls us to accountability when we sin:

¹⁶ Wash yourselves and be clean!
    Get your sins out of my sight.
    Give up your evil ways.
¹⁷ Learn to do good.
    Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
    Defend the cause of orphans.
    Fight for the rights of widows.

¹⁸ “Come now, let’s settle this,”
    says the Lord.
“Though your sins are like scarlet,
    I will make them as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson,
    I will make them as white as wool. (Isaiah 1:16-18, NLT)

People love the verse 18. It is one of the most quoted verses about God’s forgiveness. But something shone upon my face. Repentance preceded forgiveness. Repentance preceded transformation. Repentance preceded meaning and purpose. God called the people of Israel to clean their hands, to get their sins away from Him and themselves and to learn to do good and to seek justice. God called them to turn away from their way and to walk a new way. That’s repentance! Then God provided the cleansing, the new beginning, and the regeneration.  We can’t be transformed by the Gospel before repenting of our sins: we need to recognize our need for a Savior, Jesus Christ. We can’t be in good terms with God away from Jesus, and He himself preached:

“Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17, NLT)

Sounds familiar?

We can see the wholeness of the message of God in all the Bible, from the Prophets to Christ and Church Prime. When we fall, God doesn’t rejects us. He looks forward to meet us exactly where we are and how we are. Because of Jesus, because of His mercy, we can get close to the Throne of Grace confident that we will find forgiveness and grace, for He knows we are dust. We need to repent, thou. God won’t look the proud and lifted heart, but those who have a lowly and humbled spirit. That means just one thing: stop running away when you sin.

I’ve seen this in my life so many ways, and looking back, I realize that I’ve could avoid some hard times in my life if I wasn’t so stubborn, self-centered and faithless. I doubted God’s forgiveness. I doubted His Grace over me. I doubted that Jesus’ sacrifice was enough to save me and deliver me from the bondage of sin. So I tried to free myself. It didn’t work. Now I can say with all my heart that when I fall, I immediately run toward Him, instead of running away from Him. Besides, who’s the only one who can actually forgive me, but Him?

So let’s set our teary face toward His Presence again. Let’s humble ourselves and let’s go back to Him. Then we will see His power working in us, washing us white snow.