in a bad place?

(Contains material from Bill Hybels' book "Too Busy Not to Pray".)

 It is possible that something is wrong in our lives, that we have set up some barrier between us and God. It may be that we need to deal with this before bringing God our needs.

We are meant to be in fellowship with God (fellowship is a bit like a friendship with a common purpose and is a vital element of a succesful marriage). The Bible tells us that our fellowship with God (and with each other) is damaged by unaddressed sin. So sin becomes a barrier.  As followers of Jesus we are still saved, for Christ has paid the price for all the sins that we have done and will do. But the sin needs to be dealt with if we are to grow in our faith and in our relationship with God. The Bible makes it clear that whilst we live in this world we will all continue to sin and so if there wasn't an answer to this 'damaged fellowship issue', if there wasn't away to remove this 'barrier' then this would be bad news indeed.

But there is an answer and it is very important that we understand both the answer and our role as Christians in dealing with the ongoing 'sin' problem.

We need to consider the following:

• Sin grieves God's Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) and impacts our fellowship with God and with each other (1 John 1: 5,6)
• God tells us to confess our sins. 1 John 1: 9 says: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

So to remove the barriers that sin creates, to get back into fellowship with God (and each other) we need to deal with our sin. We do this by confessing our sin and repenting (turning away from it). Hence an essential part of our Christian walk is to regularly confess our sins to God and to receive his forgiveness in faith. Healthy Christians will be doing this as a regular part of their prayer life.

Taking it further

To dig deeper into how to deal with sin and walk closely with God there is a useful leaflet called 'Satisfied'. To see an online text copy click here. If you'd like to see it presented online click here. To order your own copy of the leaflet from the Agapé bookshop click here (use "Satisfied" as the search word)