November 15, 2020 RETURN TO ME
Joel 2:12-13 “’Yet, even now,’ declares the Lord, ‘return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.’ Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil.”
Hosea 14:1-3 “Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him, ‘Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips. ‘Assyria will not save us, we will not ride on horses; nor will we say again, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; For in Thee the orphan finds mercy.”
Theses verses were directed to the nation of Israel, but they also apply to us personally. These are such wonderful verse because they reveal the heart and character of our God and Father, and for that reason we find comfort even though they were written long ago, and God does not change. James 1:17. We do not have to stray from God, but we do so when we choose to follow our ways instead of His ways-we “stumble because of your (our) iniquity.” We may be guilty of an overt sin that occurred at a specific time, but more often it is a case of where one gradually begins to lose their desire for God, they stop seeking Him, and they substitute other things in place of Him-they simply let the fire die out. One major reason for stumbling spiritually is that of being disappointed because things are not working out like we wanted-we may not admit it, but it is being disappointed with God. When we ‘stumble’ in our way, when we sin, we find ourselves regretting the fact that we stumbled, and we feel shame and remorse; but if we stay focused on our sin, we miss the awesome invitation from God to return to Him. In our culture, there is little talk about sin-we just ignore it, stuff in the back of our minds and spirit, choose not to deal with it, and thus let the flame grow dim; we take sin lightly and use the mindset that says ‘that everybody sins’ as our excuse. Joel and Hosea tells us in specific details how we return to God; in essence, we mourn over the fact that we have sinned against Him-we are broken and repentant-and we humble ourselves before Him and confess our sin to Him. Acknowledging our sin without repentance is of no value, repentance means that we are broken over our sin and it means we turn from our sin and turn to God. Let us not miss or ignore the greatest news of all times; God has dealt with the sin issue through the sacrifice of His Son who died for us that our sins might be forgiven, and He has made it possible for us to be fully restored to Him. The scriptures tell us that the power of sin over us has been broken; we are no longer in bondage to sin. When we sin, we do so by choice; yet when we repent and turn to God, we find Him full of compassion and mercy and quick to forgive us and restore us-what a blessing to be forgiven and cleansed.
Acts 3:19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord:”
Psalm 34:8 “O taste and see that the Lord is good; how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.”
Blessings,
Buddy
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