The barrier that separates

“Hey, watch where you are going!” another person called out. This will be the third time he will be cautioned to stay on his lane. Greg doesn’t seem to be able to keep his eyes off his new environment. This is where his heart has yearned to be for some time now. He has been trained and cleared to serve here and he was just so overwhelmed with the opportunity.

As Greg’s team commenced the fellowship meeting, he couldn’t take his eyes off the inmates who had come to learn about Jesus. His eyes ran through them one by one – some of them look relaxed while others looked tense. He had imagined seeing hard sneering faces and involuntarily clenched fists as if waiting for the next fight outbreak. But here were prison inmates undergoing transformation praising God, reading the bible out loud, engaging in the meeting by asking questions and nodding their heads in approval of the conversation.

As the meeting came to an end, one of the inmates asked for prayers for his family to be safe, another for his kids to stay out of trouble and yet another for the safe delivery of his pregnant wife. Greg fought back the tears welling up in his eyes. Here were people separated from their families and loved ones because they had sinned against the society. 

Sin separates and creates a barrier between us and God. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear (Isaiah 59:2).

God extends an invitation to us so we can mend our ways and be restored in fellowship with Him. “Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18). “For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).

As believers, we have to constantly fill up our hearts with the word of God in order to keep sin out. “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You” (Psalms 119:11).

We have to daily trust in God’s grace, to keep the barrier – sin – out of our lives so we can remain in fellowship with God.

The grace of God is able to sustain us daily to the end, so we don’t have to rely on our own strength. Let us trust this beautiful promise in Jude 1:24 – now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.

God is faithful!