And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us…. Acts 17:26-27
While reading a sister’s letter of repentance before the congregation recently, one of our elders made the statement that it is a short trip back to God when we repent and yield our hearts to God. That brief line struck a chord with me that I hope may encourage others to never run from God but always turn and run to Him. I wish I had understood this truth when I fell away in my early years as a Christian. It could have saved me a lot of extra time in the grave danger and intense misery of apostasy. If you know someone who is running from God, do your best to help them grasp this truth.
One of Satan’s favorite tools when a person has fallen away is to convince them that they have gone too far from the Lord to turn back. He wants repentance and reconciliation to appear harder than it really is. The idea is that the farther one wanders from God the farther the return trip will be. From an earthbound perspective, this sounds reasonable. After all, if we leave a location and proceed in a certain direction, to return to our original point of departure, we must travel back the same distance. Thankfully, this inescapable truth of material logistics does not apply in the spiritual realm. As our dear brother George Ellis said, no matter how far one may wander from God, it truly is a short trip back to God when we stop running and repent.
The passage above is one of many that details how this works. The reason it is a short trip back is that God is not situated in a certain location. As Paul told the pagan philosophers in Athens, “He is not far from each one of us…” God is everywhere at all times, so no matter where we are, if we will simply stop running, repent of our sinful choices, and turn back towards Him with hearts of contrition, He is right there to receive us (Psalms 34:18; 139:7-10; Jeremiah 23:23-24). This makes repentance the only logical choice. Negatively speaking, no matter where we go or what we do, nothing escapes His notice, so we cannot hide any misdeeds (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; Hebrews 4:12-13). Positively, when we decide to return to Him, we can simply stop where we are, humble our hearts, repent of our sins, and turn back right there and then. There is no arduous trek back to where He is because He is everywhere. This does not mean there will be no consequences or restitution to be made, but it does mean we can be restored anywhere and at any time.
Add to this the fact of His intense desire to welcome us back into His grace, and running from God is the height of folly. As Isaiah put it, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7). This is perfectly in line with John’s great comfort in 1 John 1:9 concerning His willingness to forgive and cleanse us from all sin if we are willing to confess them to Him. As Paul and Peter both argued, God’s desire is for all to come to the knowledge of the truth, repent, and be spared from the wrath to come (1 Timothy 2:4-5; 2 Peter 3:9).
So, this begs the question as to why anyone would run from God. Running is a weariness to the soul, but returning to Him gives rest to the same (Matthew 11:28-30). If we return to Him, He will welcome us with tremendous joy (Luke 15:11-32). Do you need to make that short trip back to God? If so, what is stopping you?