God? Meaning of Life? Many Americans don’t seek them in church anymore. Many congregations are dwindling exponentially from within. These are folks who were active in their faith but for some reason stopped coming to church.

One person shared questions with me like: Does God want me back?; I was a believer but fell away; I was angry at God, deliberately sinning for years; I don’t have faith anymore; like, something prevents me from believing; I feel reprobate like Esau; I want to come back to God but feel like I have blown it and that He rejects me; I feel I’ve committed the unpardonable sin; I no longer feel His presence and I am dead spiritually; I don’t know if I can regain salvation, and I don’t think I can be forgiven. 

So often, people are afraid to come back to God for they feel that, since they have been gone for so long, there is no way back. Does God even want me back? How can I tell? 

Well, when we have walked away from God, whether for a day or years, coming back seems difficult. The warmth and intimacy of our faith that we once experienced when we first came to Christ seems not to be there. The prophets relentlessly called on Israel to return to God, even though they had turned away for a long time. Jesus spoke of a man having 100 sheep and one was lost who then is found and that there is more rejoicing in heaven over the one than over the 99 who never wandered. We are His sheep. Jesus also talked about a father who welcomed back his prodigal son.  If one of us wanders from the truth and someone turns him back, that person saves a soul from death and covers a multitude of sins.