How does God view you when you commit a sin and you repent? What does it mean to endure the consequences? How does a merciful God allow us to go through a painful correction?
The Bible says that God looks away, turns His face away when we sin.
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God;
-Isaiah 59:2
And your sins have hidden His face from you,
So that He will not hear.”
I think this is true when we do not repent. It is a different story when we repent. I think, He walks with us in our consequences when we confess and repent.
I want to make a case for our loving God today. I hear silly questions like “How can a merciful God allow hurt, pain, etc.,”. He is a just God. He has to allow sin to be punished. When we accepted Jesus, He forgave us because Jesus died for us so that we do not have to suffer eternal separation from Him. Consequences are a different matter, they help us grow and become better.
Here is an illustration for the scientist in you. Imagine a distillation unit (see below ) with dirty water in the distillation flask. Heat will convert the water to steam and the condenser converts it back to clean water. If we do not allow the steam to go through the condenser and continue heating the distillation flask, all the water will convert to steam, free of dirt. If we still continue heating the distillation flask, the dirt will cake up and eventually become dust, the steam remains pure. We need to allow Jesus to distill our impurities out of our existence.
Repentance is the acceptance of wanting to change, submitting to Jesus that you have a sinful nature and that he can purify us by removing the dross and burning it to smithereens. We need to be pure to be in His presence. He is purity incarnate. Our dross will catch on fire and turn us to dust with it if we do not allow for separation from the dross.
Bringing this narrative back to my initial point. God walks with us in our repentance. I remember when I was little and I was really sick. My mom nursed me, every time I opened my eyes, I saw her by me fussing. Taking me to the bathroom, cleaning up after me. She was not disgusted by my sickness. I got better, we fought the sickness together. It is exactly like that with God. In our repentance, He walks with us, He does not get disgusted, He leads and guides even when it feels like He is not. He fights the fight along side us and always leads us to victory.
Dear God,
You love us in our worst and in our best. Please do not let me forget that you endure the bad times with me. Thank you for your lovingkindness that continues to draw me closer and closer to You. Glory be Yours, now and always. Amen!