How is your relationship with God today? Are you walking close with him? Are you growing in Christ, moving forward, making progress? Alternatively, have you plateaued or even stepped backwards in your Christian walk? God created you to have a relationship with him. In addition, unless you are growing in that relationship, you are missing the best that God has for you. You are missing God’s daily love and guidance, his peace and assurance in your life. You are missing the main reason why you are here. If you have walked away from God in your life in any way, even just a little bit, it is time to return. It is time to come home to God.

What are the rivals to God in your life? You never walk away from God to nothing. There is always something that we have allowed to come between God and us. If you are not as close to God as you have been in the past, what have you allowed to come in between? Perhaps it is another person, perhaps it is some goal you are pursuing, perhaps it is money, anger, pride, or the use of your time. What is it in your life that is keeping you from God?

Take a moment and think about that. Because whatever it is, before you can return to the Lord, you must identify your idols and put them aside. Coming back to God without putting aside your idols is like a man coming back to his wife after an affair and bringing the other woman with him. That will not fly with the wife, and it will not fly with God. True repentance means putting aside any rivals to God in your life. God hates idol worship and today, an idol is not just a statue or an image, it is anything that is more important than God in your life. No matter what it is, it has to go! Yes, it is not easy, it is painful, it takes sacrifices, it means letting go of things that we hold dearly, or worked hard to get. For some it is a relationship, for some, an addiction, the nature of it can vary but if it holds a higher priority than God does in your life, “cut it down and burn it in the fire”, these are not my words; the God of Israel commanded it.

Is there anything that is in the way of an intimate relationship with God? Is there anything else you give more importance to the Lord? It is time to let go of it and Return to the Lord! He is a gracious God and He forgives all our past transgressions if we are willing to surrender.