“Why won’t God answer me?” This question has been relevant to God’s people for a very long time. Many today turn away from God or conclude He is not real or that He no longer talks to His people when they do not clearly hear His response to their prayers. There are several reasons why God may not respond to the prayer of a believer… but we must look within ourselves for the lack of communication with God rather than looking to God as the reason. God is unchanging and righteous and deeply loves His people. However, we as His people often separate ourselves from Him through our own sin… when we choose to do things our way or the world’s way rather than God’s way. We sin when we “miss the mark”, falling short of God’s standard for how we should behave and think.
Isaiah spoke of the problem of our sin getting between us and God a long time ago. The problem has not changed between then and now… it remains the sin within the believer who seeks God that separates us from him.
Isaiah 59
Separation from God
1Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short
That it cannot save;
Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear.
2But 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.
3For your hands are defiled with blood
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken falsehood,
Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly.
They trust in confusion and speak lies;
They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
5They hatch adders’ eggs and weave the spider’s web;
He who eats of their eggs dies,
And from that which is crushed a snake breaks forth.
6Their webs will not become clothing,
Nor will they cover themselves with their works;
Their works are works of iniquity,
And an act of violence is in their hands.
7Their feet run to evil,
And they hasten to shed innocent blood;
Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity,
Devastation and destruction are in their highways.
8They do not know the way of peace,
And there is no justice in their tracks;
They have made their paths crooked,
Whoever treads on them does not know peace.
A Confession of Wickedness
9Therefore justice is far from us,
And righteousness does not overtake us;
We hope for light, but behold, darkness,
For brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10We grope along the wall like blind men,
We grope like those who have no eyes;
We stumble at midday as in the twilight,
Among those who are vigorous we are like dead men.
11All of us growl like bears,
And moan sadly like doves;
We hope for justice, but there is none,
For salvation, but it is far from us.
12For our transgressions are multiplied before You,
And our sins testify against us;
For our transgressions are with us,
And we know our iniquities:
13Transgressing and denying the LORD,
And turning away from our God,
Speaking oppression and revolt,
Conceiving in and uttering from the heart lying words.
14Justice is turned back,
And righteousness stands far away;
For truth has stumbled in the street,
And uprightness cannot enter.
15Yes, truth is lacking;
And he who turns aside from evil makes himself a prey.
Now the LORD saw,
And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice.
16And He saw that there was no man,
And was astonished that there was no one to intercede;
Then His own arm brought salvation to Him,
And His righteousness upheld Him.
17He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
And a helmet of salvation on His head;
And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing
And wrapped Himself with zeal as a mantle.
18According to their deeds, so He will repay,
Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies;
To the coastlands He will make recompense.
19So they will fear the name of the LORD from the west
And His glory from the rising of the sun,
For He will come like a rushing stream
Which the wind of the LORD drives.
20“A Redeemer will come to Zion,
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob,” declares the LORD.
21“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.”
Blessed are we because of the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who came to take punishment for our sin! Without Him, we would be unable to be reconciled with God. Praise God that He made a way for us to be forgiven! We must turn away from our sin and toward living God’s way, ask forgiveness through Jesus Christ, and do our best to sin no more. We will never be perfectly sinless, but we must certainly avoid conscious and deliberate sin for this is rebellion against God in any form. Grace covers our mistakes, not our ongoing rebellion. We must turn away from self and wholeheartedly seek to be more like Jesus Christ.
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Have you submitted your life to Jesus Christ? If you die today, do you know for sure that you would be with God in heaven? Learn more about salvation through The Message of the Cross.
