This is one of the first insights in Messages from the Scriptures. It was originally posted at my publisher's blog (and of course, it can be found in the book itself).
The Lord never leaves us, but we often leave Him through our own disobedience.
Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you. (Malachi 3:7)
Sometimes it may feel as though a distance has been formed between us and the Lord. But this separation is never caused by Him—it is our doing. As the Lord explained through the prophet Isaiah: “Have I put thee away, or have I cast thee off forever? . . . Yea, to whom have I sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves” (2 Nephi 7:1; see also Isaiah 50:1). The psalmist prayed that God would “turn us” (Psalms 85:4), not the other way around. We must be sure to stay close to the Lord and avoid self-inflicted separation. Elder Neil L. Andersen taught: “We push our spiritual roots deep, feasting daily on the words of Christ in the scriptures. We trust in the words of living prophets, placed before us to show us the way. We pray and pray and listen to the quiet voice of the Holy Ghost that leads us along and speaks peace to our soul. Whatever challenges arise, we never, never leave Him” (Neil L. Andersen, “Never Leave Him,” Ensign, Nov. 2010, 41–42).
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