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The Path Back to God
By Rick Warren

“When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” (Jeremiah 29:13 MSG)

I don’t know where you are today. You may be far away from God. Maybe you haven’t been to church in years or maybe you’ve just been distant for a month or two. Maybe you’ve had one of those weeks where you thought, “I really don’t feel God’s presence in my life.” And yet we all long to be close to God. How do you get back to him?

This is the pathway back to spiritual transformation — the four things you need to do to get back to God.

1. Get fed up with your life.

Nothing is going to happen in your life until you get dissatisfied with the way you are, until you can say, “I don’t like this. I’m tired of being stressed out all the time. I’m tired of being frustrated all the time. I’m tired of being overworked all the time. I’m tired of feeling distant from God.”

Why does God let you get to this point? Because he loves you just the way you are, but he loves you too much to let you stay that way. He will not let you waste your life.

Jeremiah 29:13 says, “When you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed” (MSG).

2. Own up to your sin.

Isaiah 59:2 says, “The trouble is that your sins have cut you off from God. Because of sin he has turned his face away from you” (TLB).

Have you ever prayed and felt like God was a million miles away or like there was this veil between you and God?

Where does that come from? Your sins have separated you from God. But if you feel far from God, guess who moved? God has always been there. He loves you unconditionally, and he’s waiting for you to own up to your sin so you can have a right relationship with him again.

3. Offer up yourself.

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “We all show the Lord’s glory, and we are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings ever greater glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (NCV).

True transformation happens when your heart moves from self-centeredness to God centeredness. Are you there yet?

That transformation doesn’t happen overnight. God is going to work on you your entire life. But there is a decision that starts the process.

“I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1a NIV).

Talk It Over

Why do you think it is sometimes difficult to let go of the things that stress us out?

What does it mean to repent?

What does it look like practically to offer yourself up to God?