God has given you the freedom to turn your back on Him, but have you honestly stopped to ask yourself exactly why you’re doing this? I doubt if you have, but I sincerely hope you will.

Why have you rejected God? It isn’t because you’ve weighed all the evidence for and against God, and decided it isn’t logical to believe in Him. Nor is it because you’ve examined all the things (good and bad) that people have done over the centuries in the name of Christ, and concluded that all Christians must be hypocrites or phonies.

No, you’ve rejected God for one reason: You are reacting against your parents. They weren’t perfect; they may even have had an incomplete understanding of what the Christian life was all about. But in your determination to free yourself from their influence, you’ve also cut yourself off from the living God. And yet I believe that down inside you still sense a hunger in your heart for God; otherwise you wouldn’t have written to me.

My prayer is that you will discover the greatest truth anyone can ever discover — that God loves you and wants to welcome you into His family as His child forever. Don’t let your pride, or your rebellion, or a particular sin, or anything else keep you from Christ, but open your heart and life to Him today. The Bible says, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6).