Last night I spent some time in prayer. I asked God why it was that I felt so far away from Him - I reviewed my thoughts and actions again and searched for any place where I might have sinned and not confessed and repented...or a well of anger or bitterness - something that might be like a wall. But I could not think of something that seemed to be the answer.

And I started to wonder whether I might be imagining it - or whether I was being fooled into thinking that God was rejecting me for some wrong I had done.

But then I realized something significant I'd never realized before. I realized that Jesus is inside of us, if we have chosen to follow God in faith and to confess Jesus as Lord, and to admit that with our sin, we cannot pass God's judgment without Jesus' help. We are in Him, and He is in us. And I realized that God will not reject His own Son.

I thought again of John 4:18 - "There is no fear in love...because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love."

And I realized that even if I have sinned and my sin has come between me and God, He will not reject me. If I think He has rejected me then I'm on the wrong path.

So anytime we feel rejected by God, perhaps we need to think again - as to whether the feeling of rejectedness is from Him or from our own imaginations or assumptions. I think that God does not push us away; we push ourselves away. He is always inviting us...to come to Him and to find safety and repose.

"Come to Me, all who are weary or burdened...and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

Note that it may not be the sort of safety or repose we think we want, but it will be what we long for most deeply inside. When we come to God, He often asks us to do hard things...but they aren't to punish us - they are to bring us, ultimately, to what we long for most and what will ultimately fulfill us.

And if He did not need to turn His face away from our sin, then He would not be the God whom we can trust and wholly give ourselves to.