Indeed, the LORD”s hand is not too short to save, and His ear is not too deaf to hear. But your iniquities have built barriers between you and God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that He does not listen.     Isaiah 59:1-2 HCSB

When things get in the way it can be annoying like when you take a shortcut only to go a mile or two and find out the road is closed. Yesterday, I took my usual way home only to find a slow-moving train had traffic stopped. I had to turn around and take another route because I was in a position where once traffic started to flow, I would be stuck and unable to get out for a while longer. When things get in the way we can become frustrated and even angry.

Sadly, we often allow things to come between us, and God and we fail to see it. Our sin creates a barrier between us and God. Only Jesus’ blood shed on the cross can build a bridge over that barrier. In order to have that bridge, we must accept Christ and surrender our lives to Him. Once we do this, we must repent and let go of our sin. Then the barrier can be crossed or torn down and we are no longer separated from Christ.

The problem comes in when sin stands in our way.  The devil will lie to us and tell us our sin is okay or it’s not so bad and God will overlook it. This is a lie. We serve a just God and He must punish our sin. We are told in Hebrews 10:26 if we go on sinning deliberately there no longer remains a sacrifice for our sins. What does this mean? This means that we haven’t truly been saved if we accept Christ and keep on sinning. When we truly love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind, we want to rid our lives of sin and we don’t intentionally sin. We may slip up from time to time, but we don’t sin on purpose. This Scripture passage tells us that there is no longer a sacrifice, but a terrifying expectation of judgment of a fire about to consume the adversaries. We are God’s adversaries or enemies when we sin.

Many times, I believe we are swept up in an emotion and make a public profession of faith. We have a confession without a commitment. We don’t commit ourselves to Christ and surrender our lives to Him. When this happens, we continue on in our sin. We say we love the Lord but are unwilling to give up our former sinful lives for Him as He gave His life on the cross for us.

When we are truly saved, we don’t want to sin. We understand that this sin builds a barrier or stands in the way of us having a loving relationship with our Lord and Savior.

I have learned in my life that I need God’s arms to reach out and rescue me often. I need to know that I can call on Him and he hears me. In Psalm 66:18 it says, “If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.”

If you want God to hear your prayers and to listen to you, you need to pray for Him to help you remove sin from your life. Romans 3:23 tells us we all sin and fall short of God. Even once we surrender to Christ, we will still sin but not intentionally.

Do you love the Lord with all your heart? Are you holding on to intentional sin? If you are, please understand it is standing in the way of you being in a right relationship with Jesus. He can’t look on our sin or be around our sin so there is a barrier.

Let go of your sin and trust in Him today. He shed His blood and gave His life to save you from your sin, can’t you let go of the sin in your life for Him?

Have a great day!