“Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.” -Romans 1:24
If we sin against the Lord continually and willingly, He can and will, turn us over to that sin and it’s consequences. Although Paul here specifically mentions sexual sin, it remains true to all forms of sin. Indeed, when we look throughout the scriptures we see many examples of this where man sears his conscience to partake in some sin and the Lord gives him over to it leading, in many cases, to dire outcomes.
As bad as this is, this is a form of discipline as well. Any Christian’s heart should cry out the moment the Lord backs away from them. The Lord is always there, this we know, but there are times when he lets us struggle and flounder among the mud and filth in the world (not that this is the Lord’s design, more often than not it is of our own choosing to dig ourselves into the grime), as well as there are times when we feel like He is standing right next to us due to overwhelming sense of protection, guidance, and the outright miraculous we may experience.
The greatest tragedy is not God giving us over to sin, though it is certainly tragic, but how much greater the woe when one doesn’t even realize this is the case. I would encourage Christians to daily take inventory of their conscience when it comes to sin, stay in prayer and work on a relationship with the Lord, that if you feel your conscience less burdened by sin, you may go to God directly asking for restoration, and go to your brothers and sisters in Christ that you may never get the point where the Lord may completely leave you, as He did Samson, and you not even be aware of it (Judges 16:20).
"Samson and Delilah," by Anthony Van Dyke. oil on canvas, c. 1630
Brandon Devotional 