It's normal to think our relationship with God never changes because He never changes. But when sin leads us astray and we do not seek forgiveness and restoration, it's not God who has moved but us. In short, God never changes but our relationship with Him does change - according to the way we deal with sin.

Asa was a good king, one of the few of whom very little is said that's bad. When Azariah happened upon Asa one day, he chose to make the statement that God was with him when he was with God. The same can be said of us. Azariah's statement might sound a little confusing until you stop and realize that God never hides from us, but far too often it is us who hides from Him. We're afraid for God to look in some of the secret places in our heart, afraid He'll see where we've hidden things we know displease Him. Yeah, like that works!

Asa sought the Lord (prayed) and destroyed most of the idols that had been setup before he became king, another word for confession, repentance and restitution). Asa's action against sin pleased God and the Lord blessed him for it. Scripture implies that had Asa not sought God, his life would have taken the wicked turn of most every other king before him.

Have you learned the lesson Asa learned? Maybe we should ask if we even care if God is with us at all. Most Christians accept the Lord as Savior for the eternal benefit of going to heaven when they die. But then, we fail to trust God because we seldom, if ever allow Him to control our affairs. Instead we try to do the right thing and pretend to be spiritual. But if Jesus is not Lord of all, His not Lord at all.

The first step to being with God is understanding what He expects of us. The simplest way to do that is to seek a word from God in Scripture and then spend substantive time in prayer with Him. After all, how can we expect God to be with us when we're never with Him?

1. Pray Through the Word - 365 devotionals on the subject of prayer by James R. Green (2Chr 15)
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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