At about noon on the day that Jesus is being crucified, the sky suddenly becomes very dark — an indication that something monumental is occurring. After three hours of darkness has passed, Jesus cries out in a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” a mostly Hebrew phrase which means, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34).

Clearly, Jesus is feeling some separation from the presence of the Father at this moment. It’s not too surprising, since Jesus has taken upon Himself the sins of all mankind at this point, and God “cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance” (Alma 45:16). It should give us all the more appreciation for what Jesus did for us as He who was without sin allowed Himself to be treated as a sinner (even by His Father, for a brief time) — all for our sakes!

The words that Jesus shouted from the cross are actually a quote from Psalm 22. It’s generally believed that this psalm was prophetic and the utterance of Jesus was a fulfillment of that prophecy. When you read the first verse of the psalm, it’s easy to see how it can be expressing the human emotions that Jesus could have been feeling at that time:

“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” (Psalm 22:1)

If Jesus felt a little disconnected from the Father when He had all the sins of mankind upon Him, it follows that if we allow ourselves to enter a sinful condition, we will also feel a separation from God. When Isaiah was speaking to the sinful House of Israel, he told them:

“Your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)

God desires a close relationship with mankind. He wants to be with us — when Jesus came to earth, one of His names was Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” But “He doth not dwell in unholy temples” (Alma 7:21), so when we are in a sinful condition, we bring about a separation between us and God.

What does this separation feel like? It can include any or all of the following:

• We may feel like our prayers aren’t being heard.
• We may feel like the Holy Spirit isn’t directing us.
• We may have less desire to be in church or to read the scriptures.
• We may have more of a desire to be involved in sinful activities.

Clearly, this is not a condition we want to remain in. But how do we get ourselves out of this condition?

Well, the first thing is to recognize our sin and acknowledge it before God, being repentant and asking Him for His forgiveness.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

After that, we need to do our best to not return to that sin. Our goal should be to follow the advice that Jesus gave the woman who was caught in adultery — “Go, and sin no more” (John 8:11).

After everything that God has done to be with us — sending Jesus to earth, calling us into the Church, forgiving us of our sins, etc. — we don’t want to be separated from God. Ultimately, if we let sinful conditions go uncorrected, we put ourselves at risk of eternal separation from God, which is obviously the worst possible outcome of this life on earth.

So, let’s do our best to live righteous lives and follow the direction of the Holy Ghost within us. We’re human, so we will mess up from time to time, but God is faithful to forgive us of our sins if we sincerely repent. Praise God that we’re among the few that found the straight and narrow way that leads to life — let’s not wander onto the broad way that leads to destruction and separation from God.