Being Abandoned by God

We are all free moral agents. God has given us a will, so we can choose what we will do and how we will do it. God is watching us to see what we will do in every situation of life. If our heart is faithful to Him, He draws near to us. If we decide to not listen to Him, and we go our own way, He lets us go. However, there are consequences to our decision. We can abandon God, but we have to bear the bad consequences, too. That is what happened in Judah after Jehoiada the priest died. He had been advising King Joash because he became king at the age of seven. However, when he died, King Joash listened to the wrong advisors, and he led the people away from the Lord. Then Jehoiada's son stood up and warned the people of the consequences of their actions. (II Chronicles 24:20) He asked them why they were transgressing the commands of God, so that they would not prosper. Then, he told them that because they had abandoned God, He had abandoned them. That is a scary thought. Let's consider what this means to be abandoned by God.

The Bible doesn't promise that God will follow us around all of the time. I know, as believers, we belong to God's family. We are His children, and He loves us dearly. However, the Bible is clear that we are to follow the Lord. He is not obligated to follow us around. When we decide to abandon what the Lord tells us to do and do things our way, we will not prosper. God will make sure of that. We will not receive His blessings. He will see that we have abandoned Him, and He will leave us alone, if that is what we want. He will not answer our prayers. He will not guide us in other areas. He will allow us to live on our own and see how that goes for us. His purpose is to show us we need to return to Him. We do not lose our salvation, if we are Christians, but we lose the joy of our salvation. We run into road blocks, and we must decide to confess our sins and repent before God will come back to us and walk with us again. I pray that we will never abandon God, but if anyone has done that, please, return to Him today with all of your heart.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read II Chronicles 25-28.