We’ve been lied to. I know that sounds harsh, and I don’t think it was ever intentional, but here it is. All these years I’ve believed a lie.
Just a brief history: When I was fifteen I became a Christian. That is, I entered into a real, personal relationship with Jesus. I fell head over heels in love with the Lord. And in the few years since – okay, so it’s been almost half a century, but time flies, right? – I’ve continued to love Him. But I’ve had ups and downs like most people – times when I’ve been so close to God I felt like I could reach out and touch Him, and times when I’ve been so distantly separated that I thought I would never find my way back.
And that’s where the lie came in.
So many times when I was struggling, good, sincere, loving Christian friends – even pastors – counseled me to just turn to God, because He was there waiting for me to come back to Him. He was waiting with open arms! He hadn’t turned away from me; I had turned away from Him. All I had to do was run back into His arms, and I’d be safe and warm again.
But it turns out that’s a lie.
Oh, not the part about who turned away from whom. That’s true. Always. Every time. God never turns away from one of His children. It’s that other part, about running back into his arms. That’s the falsehood.
Now let me digress just a minute before I explain.
If you’re at all familiar with the Bible you know something about the Psalms. The Psalms and I have always had a little bit of a loose relationship. I love the Psalms – or at least some of them. The praisey, worshippy, lift-me-up-and-make-me-smile Psalms. I can sing of your love forever … Unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul … The everlasting love of the Lord never fails … But those Psalms of David where he’s running from his enemies and hiding in caves and dodging all the arrows and all that? Meh.
But recently my Bible study group started a study called Redeemed by Angela Thomas
Pharr. As part of the study, we are reading through the Psalms, roughly three Psalms a day, which necessitates my reading all the cave hiding, arrow dodging ones along with the happy happy happy ones.
And it was in reading one of those Psalms that I discovered I had believed a lie lo these many years. (Some might say many many many many years but I think that is borderline rude.)
Here is the first thing I learned: I may not have enemies like David had enemies, dudes with fire-tipped arrows hunting me through the wilderness, but I have enemies. My enemies are Satan and his minions, and their arrows are temptation that leads to sin, confusion, busyness, stress, worry, anxiety, uncertainty, envy, frustration, discontent – any of the gazillion things that separate me from God. Any of the things that keep me from an intimate communion with the Lord. And here’s the other thing I learned.
Are you ready for the biggie?
When I’m stuck in the cave, bogged down by these arrows being slung at me, trying to fend off my enemies, separated from God by whatever it might be at that moment, I do not need to turn and run back into His arms.
Listen to this. Read it carefully. Read it out loud. It’s a little long, but my friend, I promise it is worth it.
“The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice, my cry came before him, into his ears.
{Get ready; this is where it gets really really really good.}
“The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook; they trembled because he was angry. {Not angry at you; angry at your enemies!} Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared on the wings of the wind. He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him – the dark rain of the sky. Out of the brightness of his presence clouds advanced, with hailstones and bolts of lightning.
“The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies, great bolts of lightning and routed them. The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
“He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:4-19)
If you don’t have chills you need to read that again.
I could go on and on about this, and actually I already have to anyone who would listen, but just know this:
You never have to make your way back to God. Whenever you find yourself separated from Him, no matter the reason, if you want to be back in His arms, the only thing you have to do is cry out to Him. That’s it.
This should be the thing we learn right after we learn John 3:16 – For I, God, so loved the world that I gave My only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And whenever any of you whosoevers is in trouble and cries out to Me – you don’t have to turn to Me, you don’t have to look for Me, you don’t have to run to Me, you just have to cry out to Me – I’m going to part the heavens and come after you breathing fire, making the mountains tremble, scattering your enemies – those oh-so-powerful enemies that can’t hold a candle to Me – and I’m going to reach down from on high and take hold of you, and bring you into a spacious place, into My presence.
And I’m going to do it because I delight in you.