It’s true, nothing can separate you from the love of God
I’ve got a confession to make. One afternoon, a number of years ago, I lost my temper at someone I loved dearly. I said things I should never have said. I yelled with frustration and abruptly left the scene. I was so angry and upset, I didn’t know how to process what had just happened. If you had told me at the time: Nothing can separate you from the love of God, I would have laughed with scorn, because that’s exactly how I felt, separated from God because of the way I had just acted.
But after a minute or two I calmed down enough for it to sink in what a terrible thing I had done. It wasn’t the way I usually behaved. But something in the moment had roused in me deep seated fears and insecurities and they all came gushing forth in a torrent of anger.
I thought I was angry and frustrated with the person I had been yelling at. But actually, in looking back at this situation, I realize I was unconsciously angry and frustrated with myself.
Now, with a little space to think, I burst into tears. I felt terrible for what I had done and the harm I had caused to this person. I went back and apologized, but it had little healing effect.
I had to learn that nothing can separate you from the love of God
Now you may be surprised to hear that I acted in this way. I was too. Here I am, encouraging everyone on this podcast and in all the various aspects of my ministry, to think, pray, and love like Jesus. It should be no big surprise that I don’t always do that perfectly.
In this situation, I failed miserably. I was about as far away from acting like Jesus as possible. I felt so far away from God and His love. And for a long time carried a burden of guilt for the way I had behaved.
Now you may be wondering: Hey James, why are you telling us this story? From all you say on the podcast, I thought you were doing such a beautiful job of following Jesus. This doesn’t really sound like you at all.
Well, you’re right, it doesn’t sound like me. It’s not how I think of myself or how I want to live my life and interact with people, especially the ones I love. But the reason I share this story is to let you know there is hope if something like this ever happens to you.
It took time
Over many months, probably even a couple of years, I prayed earnestly to repent, to forgive myself and the other person, and to find some peace of mind. And gradually I made little baby steps of spiritual progress along these lines. I began to feel God’s presence in my life again. Once more I felt God’s love for me.
Even though I hadn’t felt God’s love during this process, couldn’t accept it, or didn’t feel worthy of it, I am convinced this divine Love was there all along.
One of the most powerful lessons I learned from this experience is that no matter what you have done, no matter what others have done to you, no matter what the negative circumstances have been in your life, nothing can separate you from the love of God.
During those months of prayer, self-examination, and self-condemnation, I found a lot of comfort in so many stories in the Bible where people who were in terrible, unfair, and painful situations, either that they had caused or that were perpetrated upon them, felt God’s love, protection, and presence right when things were at their worst.
Joseph knew that nothing can separate you from the love of God
One of the most powerful examples of this is the story of Joseph who was despised by his 10 older brothers, thrown into a pit, then sold and ended up as a slave in Egypt. But regardless of how terrible this situation was, he knew God was with him and that God brought prosperity to his Master’s house.
Just when things were looking good, his master’s wife falsely accused of trying to commit adultery and he was thrown into prison.
But however bad this situation was, however unjust it was, Joseph did not feel separated from God. In fact, the book of Genesis says,
Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.Genesis 39:20, 21 NIV
Joseph knew God had not abandoned him. His experience speaks to us today that nothing can separate you from the love of God.
Now if you think something or someone can separate you from God and His love for you, it doesn’t make it true, even if you feel that way.
Now, there’s a difference between Joseph’s experience where he had been falsely accused and when I was yelling and losing my temper with someone.
Because of the guilt I felt for my terrible behavior, it took a long time to be able to say for myself or anyone, and really believe it, that nothing can separate you from the love of God.
David learned the hard way that nothing can separate you from the love of God
The story of king David and his actions toward Bathsheba and Uriah her husband was incredibly helpful at this time.
Not only did David commit adultery with Bathsheba, but once he learned she was pregnant, he arranged for her husband, Uriah, to be killed in battle in an attempt to cover up his own sin.
Here was a man who had been faithful to God, had depended on God, had trusted in God, and obeyed God for many years. But in a moment of weakness, he sinned.
When Nathan the prophet comes to David, a simple parable opens David’s eyes and heart to admit his sin of adultery and murder. And his self-justification turns into repentance.
Where was God’s love for David when he had desires for and committed adultery with Bathsheba? Where was God’s love for David when he plotted to have Uriah killed? And where was God’s love for Bathsheba and Uriah in this process?
Where was God’s love?
Did God’s love go away? Did God withdraw His love? Could anything a person do or a situation bring take away God’s love? Of course not.
So why didn’t David feel God’s love in his moments of temptation? Why didn’t I feel God’s love in my moment of frustration and anger?
It’s the same reason you can’t see when you close your eyes. God’s love didn’t go anywhere. God didn’t stop loving David. But David was led astray by untamed desires in his heart. He was blinded by ungodlike thoughts and feelings which he hadn’t overcome yet. Just as I was blinded by fears and insecurities when I was yelling in anger.
In both these situations, God was not absent. God’s love was not absent. We, David and I, didn’t see God’s love. We didn’t feel it. But it was still there, the whole time.
Nothing can separate you from the love of God.
A window into David’s heart
The beautiful thing about David’s situation and mine is that both of us came to feel God’s love again.
If you want to look through the window of David’s heart after Nathan helped him see the severity of his sins, just read Psalm 51.
It’s a beautiful prayer of repentance as well as a plea for forgiveness and restoration. It shows David did come to feel God’s love and forgiveness.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:1-3, 10 NIV
I believe God answered David’s prayers. He has certainly answered mine, which were very similar to David’s. Since that time many years ago when I lost my temper and said and did hurtful things, God has gently rebuked me, uncovered the ungodlike thoughts in my heart, and continues to purify my motives and actions.
I still have many lessons to learn, but I can say with conviction that I do feel God’s love for me as a very present reality. And no matter what you have done or what has happened to you, nothing can separate you from the love of God.
Jesus knew absolutely that nothing can separate you from the love of God
This is so perfectly brought out in the life of Jesus. No matter what happened to him, no matter how the religious leaders of his day tried to trap him in his words and oppose his message, he knew God was with him. Even when he was falsely accused, tried, and condemned to death, even on the cross, he knew God’s love was with him.
He had told his disciples just hours before he was crucified,
I am not alone, for my Father is with me. John 16:32 NIV
Jesus knew God loved him. Earlier he had reassured his disciples,
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. John 5:20 NIV
Now, I used to hear preachers say that when Jesus was on the cross he felt separated from God. They base this on,
And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). Mark 15:34 NIV
These preachers say God turned His back on Jesus because of the sins of the world on his shoulders, and Jesus felt abandoned, forsaken, and separated from God’s love.
Jesus never felt separated from God
Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus never for a minute doubted God’s love for him. It’s what gave him courage to go through the ordeal of the cross and everything that led up to it.
Jesus was quoting Psalm 22, the first line of which reads,
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Psalm 22:1 NIV
Jesus was telling everyone to go read Psalm 22, which describes fairly graphically the crucifixion scene. Read it for yourself and you’ll see what I mean.
Psalm 22 ends on a powerful note of triumph.
All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations. Psalm 22:27, 28 NIV
This doesn’t sound like someone feeling separated from God. Jesus was not bewailing separation from God’s love, but rejoicing in the ultimate victory of God’s love over evil.
I hope and pray you can imbibe this same spirit of Jesus’s absolute conviction that God’s love is with you at all times, even when things are at their worst, either because of something you did or what someone else did. Because nothing can separate you from the love of God.
All of Jesus’s disciples and followers, including you and me, have had to and will have to affirm and become increasingly aware that nothing can separate you from the love of God.
Paul had to learn that nothing can separate you from the love of God
If anyone ever had to learn this lesson through tears and letting go of the past it was Paul. Think of the change of heart and repentance Paul must have experienced, once he accepted Christ, in coming face to face with his previous persecution of Christians.
How would you have felt in Paul’s place? He had committed horrendous crimes against the early church. But he was able to accept God’s forgiveness and experience God’s love and share that love with everyone who would listen.
He didn’t pretend he hadn’t persecuted the followers of Jesus, but he must have found release from the burden of guilt from his actions. It could only be because he felt God’s love.
Paul knew God loved him
And once Paul was preaching and teaching about Jesus and establishing churches in the process, he experienced a lot of opposition that could have easily caused him to wonder if God’s love was still with him. But he never wavered for a minute in spite of all he endured. He gives sort of an overview of all the challenges he experienced.
Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 2 Corinthians 11:24-27 NIV
How would you or I have faced these same kinds of situations? I shudder to think what would happen if these things ever happened to me.
But instead of feeling that God’s love was absent because of what happened to him, Paul was so aware of God’s love that it impelled him to keep sharing the gospel of Christ in any way he could, in whatever circumstances he found himself.
Paul never wavered
When returning to Jerusalem, knowing that there would be more persecutions, Paul could say,
But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:24 NKJV
If Paul can have this attitude with all he faced, you and I can be willing to embrace this same mindset when we feel the world’s opposition to Christ.
In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul puts forward this great fact that nothing can separate you from the love of God.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35, 37-39 NIV
I repeat: nothing can separate you from the love of God
Take a moment with each of these situations where Paul declares nothing can separate you from the love of God.
He was speaking from intense personal experience. Through all his trials and tribulations, he not only felt God’s love but was impelled forward by it.
And he says that when opposition occurs, “we are more that conquerors through Him who loved us.”
Take a moment and think of what’s going on in your life right now. Is there anything that makes you feel separated from God’s love, that His love is here but hard to feel, or that maybe you’re not worthy of God’s love?
Right now, whether you feel it, see it, or think you deserve it, God’s love is present with you to guard and guide, to help and heal you.
If you don’t feel separated from God…
Now you may be thinking: Hey James, I haven’t faced as many challenges as Paul did, but I know in my heart, just like he did, that nothing has or can ever separate me from God’s love.
Well, that’s absolutely wonderful and I’m so grateful you are in such a place, because it means you can help others discover that God’s love is always with them.
No matter what you’ve done, how badly you’ve sinned, how unfairly you’ve been treated, no matter what has happened, nothing can separate you from the love of God.
God makes His own declaration of His love for us through the prophet Jeremiah,
I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself. Jeremiah 31:3 NLT
If you do not feel God’s love…
So, what if you’re not feeling God’s love right now, or at some point in the future? It’s helpful to remember you don’t have to earn God’s love by your behavior, any more than you have to earn the right to breathe.
If you are alive, then you are a child of God. You wouldn’t and couldn’t exist if God hadn’t mothered and fathered you into existence. And because you’re a child of God, He loves you.
Maybe you’ve always known and felt God’s love for you. The question then becomes: How will you help others experience God’s love for them? Or more specifically, who will you help this week to experience God’s love? When you feel God love for you, you want others to feel it too.
God is Love. God is everywhere, which means there is no spot geographically, situationally, or emotionally where God and God’s love for you are not present.
Open your eyes, your heart, and your hands to accept this love. Embrace it. Let it permeate your being. Then this love will shine forth so others will feel it too.
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
_____________
James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
Make a donation to support the show
Listen and leave a review on
_____________
Bible References
Genesis 39:20, 21 NIV
20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison,
21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
Psalm 51:1-3, 10 NIV
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
John 16:32 NIV
32 I am not alone, for my Father is with me.
John 5:20 NIV
20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does.
Mark 15:34 NIV
34 And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
Psalm 22:1 NIV
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Psalm 22:27, 28 NIV
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.
2 Corinthians 11:24-27 NIV
24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,
26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.
27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
Acts 20:24 NKJV
24 But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
Romans 8:35, 37-39 NIV
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come,
39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Jeremiah 31:3 NLT
3 “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.
