“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
*As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
*Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
*For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
*Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:35-39.

WHENEVER I read the passage above I always note that it does not include personal sin. It does not absolve the effect my ‘besetting’ sin has on the relationship with GOD. Being a Prodigal is a real condition; established by personal sin.

it would be wrong for me to conclude that I can not die while in the ‘hog pen’, and it would be a huge mistake to think that my separation from GOD indicates a failure on GOD’s part.

Romans 8 offers the assurance of GOD’s presence. It does not offer the assurance that my behavior won’t carry me far from the home I love and need.

But what is equally comforting is understanding that it was while in the hog pen, desperate with hunger and despair; that the Prodigal heart returned to the Father and home. It was not after he had arrived home. It was at the hog pen. It was in that hog pen restoration from the cankerworm began. Luke 15:15-20.

Nothing has the power to separate us from the love of JESUS, but we can walk away on our own. That is the effect and burden of wrongly exercising free will. Turn your heart towards home and run for your life.