No Distance from Our Savior

June 12

The people of God had once again been sold into captivity. The cycle that typified their relationship with the Holy One of Israel had again gone full circle. They had prayed in their extremity; He had heard them; He had delivered them; they were restored to greatness; they pursued false gods; they went into captivity again…

Over and over, His people were undone by their prosperity and by their blessed position in the safety of the Lord’s keeping and provision. Like them, we, find ourselves basking in the blessings Jesus has provided for us, and like them, we become complacent in the midst of the good He lavishes upon us. Like them, we become curious about other people and the gods they serve.

We become allured by the fun they seem to have, by their delights that appear so much more enticing than what the Lord has given to us. When we have fallen from faith and are at a distant point from where He desires us to be, even there His hand can reach us and draw us back. He says to us as He said to Jacob, “My servant, be not afraid or discouraged, for without fail I will save you from far away” Jeremiah 46:27.

No matter how far away we may go, when our hearts and minds turn toward the Lord, He is there. Perhaps one of the most beautiful modern depictions of this reality is the experience of Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong whose first act when their spacecraft landed on the moon was to take communion. These two men of faith, so far away from their natural element, knew there was no distance that could separate them from their Savior; they/we are free in Him universally.