God’s faithfulness to us doesn’t depend on our faithfulness to Him. The Bible says, ‘If we are faithless, he remains faithful.’ Our mistakes might take us out of God’s will, but they’ll never take us to a place where we’re beyond His reach.

Author Catherine Marshall told the story of a personal struggle she experienced while writing a novel called Gloria. She started the book in 1969, but then she had to abandon the project two-and-a-half years later. She described the shelved manuscript as feeling ‘like a death in the family’. Her confidence shattered, she decided to spend some time at a retreat house in an effort to understand and reconcile her conflicting thoughts and feelings. While there, she reread the Bible story from Numbers about a time when poisonous snakes filled the Israelite camp. The people recognised the snakes as punishment for their sin, and cried out in repentance. God told Moses, ‘Make a [bronze] snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live’ (Numbers 21:8 NIV).

Catherine realised that just as the Israelites took what had hurt them, lifted it up to God, and were healed, we can take our mistakes and sins, lift them up to God in prayer, and trust Him to heal us. She wrote, ‘When any one of us has made a wrong (or even doubtful) turning in our lives through arrogance, lack of trust, impatience, or fear – God will show us a way out.’ Even when we stray from God, He loves us so much that He’ll draw us back again. ‘If we are faithless, he remains faithful.’

What Now?

What parts of your life have wandering away from God or shut Him out? Take a few minutes to pray about those areas and ask God to show you the way back to Him.