Behold the LORD’s hand is not so short that it cannot save;  nor is His ear so dull that it cannot hear.  But 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.      Isaiah 59:1-2 NASB

Separation anxiety is described as a normal stage of development that occurs when the baby begins to build stronger relationships with caregivers.  It is characterized by excessive anxiety of a child upon separation from a parent. Symptoms may include anxiety, apprehension, fear, crying, and fussing. This is common in children ages 5 and younger. Do you ever exert these symptoms? Perhaps you are experiencing separation anxiety.

I remember just a couple years ago when my great nephew started daycare. He suffered separation anxiety. He had spent two years staying at home with His mom and she had returned to work. Knowing that He was going through this broke my heart. I wanted to take this anxiety away from him. But, he adjusted and is now thriving. In hindsight, I think it was really good for him. He is so smart and is learning so much and I have seem him really blossom in these last two years.

Children are resilient. The younger they are the more resilient they tend to be. The older we get the more change effects us. But no matter what age you may be when you are separated from your Heavenly Father, it is devastating. Oh, you may not realize it right away, but eventually you will see a pattern of heartache. If you start to trace back, it’s like bread crumbs of heart ache that follow the path to show you exactly where you walked away from God.

Now maybe you have never been in close fellowship with God and your life seems to be a train wreck and you don’t understand why. Well, let me help you with this. We are not meant to be separated from God. We were created to be in close fellowship with Him. But, he gave us a choice. We can be close to Him or totally separated, it’s our choice. When we choose separation from Him, our life is out of whack. It’s like trying to run a train on the highway, it just doesn’t work out so well. Now you may be thinking that you know people that are wealthy and have everything in life going for them and they don’t even believe in God. Trust me, somewhere there is a train wreck, and sadly they may not even understand what’s going on. For if we turn our backs on God long enough, He will give us over to our sinful desires (Romans 1:24).

Now, if you have ever been in close fellowship with God then you know that even in your darkest hour, you were able to see the light. You had this hope that might have seemed a little crazy to those around you. You knew that God had this and that even though bad things were going on, He was working all this out for your good (Romans 8:28). But perhaps you slowly slipped out of that fellowship and all of a sudden your life was one disaster after another.

I was raised in church. I was a God fearing, Christian girl, but then came some serious problems in my life. You see I had married someone that God had tried to tell me not to marry. I didn’t listen.  So, when that relationship failed miserably, I tried to keep a foot in the world and a foot in the church. Trust me, that never works. Then like the Israelites, I confessed my sin, repented and got back into fellowship with God and for a while all was well and then, you guessed it. I slipped out of fellowship with Him and back into sin and had to repeat the whole miserable process. The thing is that this wasn’t a process that took a few hours, a few days, a few weeks or even a few months. It took years. I fell into sin for several years before it occurred to me that what I had thought would be fun and would solve my problems had only added more problems to my life. My sin was making me miserable. Why? Well I’m glad you asked. My sin had separated me from God. I had been separated from my heavenly father. I was suffering separation anxiety. I was miserable.

Now the big difference between separation anxiety like my nephew experienced and what we experience as Christians is that children learn to adapt and overcome. For them it is a normal stage of development. As Christians we can’t adapt to a life of sin, but we can overcome the sin and get back into fellowship with our Lord and Savior.

Even if your life from the outside looks pretty good but on the inside is a train wreck, know that there is a cure for your separation anxiety. You can turn to God. You can trust in Him. You can cry out to Him and He will save you. Your sin might have separated you from Him, but He’s only a prayer away.

Have you been experiencing anxiety, apprehension, fear, crying, or fussiness lately? If so, you may be suffering from separation anxiety. You may have fallen into sin that separates you from God. If you allow that sin to continue, know that it will eventually destroy you. The devil’s goal is to steal, kill, and destroy, but God wants you to be able to live life to the fullest (John 10:10). The choice is simple. He can cure your separation anxiety if you will only trust in Him today, because remember there will come a time when it will be too late. Hell is eternal separation from God which means eternal suffering of separation anxiety, think about it.

Have a great day!