Nothing Stands Between You & God

A few years back, I had a friend that smoked crack. I would sit on his front porch for hours at a time talking about life and God. I could be around him while he was on anything except alcohol because then he annoyed the crap out of me. One day we were sitting there, and he said:

“Andy, let me get this straight. God isn’t going to love me more if I quit smoking crack, and He isn’t going to love me any less if I keep smoking crack?”

I said: “Yes, exactly!”

After thinking about it for a few minutes, he replied, “OK, I’ll just smoke crack then!”

Shocked, I said, “Let’s pray. Holy Spirit, will You reveal whether he should or should not smoke crack? In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.”

I ended up going away for a couple of weeks of vacation after this. When I came back, my friend was gone. I looked everywhere, in all his usual spots, but he was nowhere to be found.

About 5 months after that, he called me: “Andy, I'm sorry I didn’t call, but when I went to rehab, they took away my phone.”

A few years later, I got another message from this friend. He was engaged, owned his own business, and was sponsoring and hiring people coming out of rehab. It was an incredible turnaround. I would call it a miracle. Here's an extract of the message I got from him:

I love you so much.

You NEVER were one that sought validation, but brother, God's impact on my life was most felt through OUR interactions.

Andy, you did it, Sir.

You worked God's work because the truth is we are His children. Therefore, we possess all of his love and abilities.

I'm powerful and I can move mountains as could He.

Thank you for loving me when I wasn't proud of myself.

Here's my takeaway:

The only thing that stops God from encountering a person is us.

In this example, I didn’t put anything in the way of his experience of God. So, as of this very moment, there isn’t a single behavior that stands between you and God. Not going to church, not reading the holy scriptures, not praying, and not even giving tithes or offerings.

Nothing stands between you and God!