Running From God Series

And you can search to the end of the highway and come back no better than before.

To find yourself you’ve got to start right here.

God knows us and sees us wherever we go – whether that is in the bottom of a ship or in the belly of a whale. Sometimes people try to hide from God, but they can’t. We CAN’T outrun God and we CAN’T hide from Him!

3. Running from God is DANGEROUS

God loves you and wants what is best for you. Saint Augustine once wrote “You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” We have within each one of us a God shaped hole that cannot be filled by anything other than a personal relationship with Him. Running from God always leads to grief.

I remember when we were thinking of going to Kuwait. Petra was just a few months old. People told us we were crazy for taking a baby into a war zone. We understood the truth that the safest place to be in the universe is right in the center of God’s will. If that is true, then the opposite is also true. The most dangerous place to be in the universe is in opposition to God’s will. What are the consequences of running from God?

a. To Ourselves

When we run from God our fellowship with Him is broken. We loose the benefit of all the positive influence He can bring to our lives through worship, Christian fellowship, reading the Bible or prayer. We cut all the positive input into our lives and replace it with negative. Running from God puts us in a struggle with Him. Like Jacob learned, you cannot wrestle with God and expect to win.

David understood this truth;

Psalms 32:3-4 When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.

Notice that phrase “your hand was heavy upon me.” Have you ever experienced that in your own life? e.g. In Seminary - trying to avoid dealing with an issue and God making things very uncomfortable for me. No backslider is a happy person. God will pursue you and use your conscience and circumstances to bring you to obedience.

Running from God hurts us emotionally, physically and spiritually. When the Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant, they experienced this truth;

1 Samuel 5:6-11 The LORD's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; he brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumors. 7 When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, "The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because his hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god." 8 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, "What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?" They answered, "Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath." So they moved the ark of the God of Israel. 9 But after they had moved it, the LORD's hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors. 10 So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people." 11 So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people." For death had filled the city with panic; God's hand was very heavy upon it.