Tag Archives: repentance

In Awe of God’s Goodness

Leave a reply

But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David’s descendant, their king. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness.
Hosea 3:5, NLT*

We’re a pretty unfaithful bunch, aren’t we, as humans?

It’s worth noting that the people whose return to the Lord is anticipated in this verse only come back after a serious intervention on God’s part. Their choices lead to consequences.

The Book of Hosea is a beautiful picture of how much God loves His people and desires a relationship with us – and how easily we’ll turn away from Him.

Even those of us who know and love Him need to be careful not to drift away. Those who don’t know Him yet don’t want to get closer in the first place.

But God…

Read Hosea and see God’s love, mercy and grace – and the impact of human unfaithfulness. See how God takes it upon Himself to bring us back, because He knows we won’t come on our own.

And see the promise of how it will be when we “finally know Him as the LORD (Hosea 2:20)”

God our determined and loving Rescuer, thank You. May we who know You devote ourselves to You. Overwhelm us with Your goodness. Keep us close. Please draw those who don’t yet know You, even through the many struggles in the world today. Open their eyes and hearts to who You are, so that they will tremble in awe of Your goodness.

∞

Todd Agnew’s song, “You are Good,” points to how we see God’s goodness in Jesus’ willing sacrifice to save us.

*New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

God Wants Us Back

1 Reply

The Lord gave [King Nebuchadnezzar] victory over King Jehoiakim of Judah and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects from the Temple of God. So Nebuchadnezzar took them back to the land of Babylonia and placed them in the treasure-house of his god.
Daniel 1:2, NLT*

And so began Israel’s bleak captivity. I’m sure Nebuchadnezzar credited his own god (or himself) for this triumph. After all, it was his army that achieved it.

But did you notice the key words in the verse? “The Lord gave him victory… and permitted him to take some of the sacred objects…”

Not that God had abandoned His chosen people. This was part of His plan to draw them back to Himself after they’d repeatedly rejected Him. The prophets had warned them again and again, but they refused to listen.

I’m sad about how often our own blindness and self-will makes us insist on our way instead of following God’s way. We think we can have both, but we can’t.

What an amazing, loving God and Shepherd we have. Instead of immediately giving us over to the things we’re so quick to chase, He continues to call us back to Himself. The more we resist, the more painful the process may become. I’d rather be quick to hear when I get off-track.

God of love and righteousness, grant us hearts that are quick to hear and to respond to Your leading – hearts that love being in close relationship with You and that don’t want to let anything come between us. Help us to love You more than we love those things that would lead us away. Thank You that when we turn back to You, You forgive, restore, and embrace us.

∞

If we’ve drifted, when we finally turn around, as Todd Agnew sings, God is “Always There”.

*New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Time Sensitive Invitation

2 Replies

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.
Luke 13:34, NLT*

“You wouldn’t let Me.”

Those are some of the saddest words in the Bible. Jesus makes the invitation, but it’s up to us to accept Him.

I’ve been reading the  Gospel of Luke, seeing again Jesus’ miracles and teaching, watching the stages of revelation and responsibility He gave His disciples.

By this point in the narrative, He’s moving toward Jerusalem for the last time, and His teaching has taken on an urgency. Chapter 13 warns repeatedly that time is running out, for Jesus’ hearers and for people today.

Those who don’t turn from their old ways and “work hard to enter the narrow door” (Luke 13:24, NLT*) – those who won’t come on God’s terms instead of insisting on their own interpretations – will one day find it’s too late.

There is restricted access to a relationship with God in the Kingdom of Heaven. There will be a cut-off time, an expiry to the invitation.

But the invitation is extended to everyone. “He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.” (2 Peter 3:9b, NLT*)

Holy God, our finite minds can’t grasp the enormity of sin or the vastness of Your love. Thank You for the grace of Jesus, and please give us faith to cling to You. Help us recognize when others are responding to Your Spirit’s call, and give us wisdom and willingness to speak or to be silent as You lead. May we do nothing to hinder anyone’s coming to You.

∞

Take a few minutes to let Don Francisco re-tell the story of the fall – and God’s heart-cry for reconciliation: “Adam, Where Are You?”

*New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Joy and Strength

4 Replies

This is a sacred day before our Lord. Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!
Nehemiah 8:10b, NLT*

The joy of the Lord is your strength.

This is another verse I’ve relied on over the years. But if you look at the context for this verse, it doesn’t match how we often use it.

After some of the exiled Israelites returned to rebuild the Temple, Nehemiah was sent by God to oversee rebuilding the protective wall around Jerusalem. By this chapter, the Temple and wall are both standing, and the people have done some cleaning up of their lives, too.

All the way through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah I see cues of God’s work in the people’s hearts: motivating them to return to their homeland, to give financially to the Temple’s reconstruction, to work on the wall. For those who’d stepped away, to give up their foreign (idol-worshipping) wives and stop charging interest on loans to their struggling countrymen.

Now in chapter 8, the people assemble and ask Ezra the scribe to read to them from the Law. God is drawing them – they want to know how to live in good relationship with Him.

I think that’s why Nehemiah encourages them to stop weeping and start celebrating.

Repentance means seeing what’s wrong in our lives, agreeing with God – and changing our direction and behaviour to line up with what He says. It’s one of those words that can make us cringe at the thought of fiery preachers or John the Baptist shouting at people and condemning their actions.

But here, the people have already repented. They’ve listened to God’s life-rules and they see where they’ve gone a different way. They’ve seen perfection and their own imperfection. They’re sorry for what they’ve done wrong. Maybe scared, too. God hauled the entire nation off to Babylon for 70 years because of repeated sin, and here they are, newly back in the land and already messing up. Will He send them away again? Or worse?

I wonder if they were also discouraged. How could they ever live up to God’s expectations in the Law? Maybe that’s why Nehemiah told them “the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

His words have always struck me as encouraging, a promise of where our help comes from. Nehemiah says it here to a people weeping for their moral and spiritual weakness, and I think it’s to show that God’s strength is for more than rebuilding Temples and walls – it’s for rebuilding human lives. (Tweet this.)

Creator God, You are holy and just. We can’t stand in Your presence except through Jesus’ blood. We can’t please You on our own, but how grateful we are that the joy of You can be our strength, and Christ in us is our hope of glory. Draw us to live ever closer to You, in the light of Your love.

∞

Brian Doerksen’s song “Welcome to the Place of Level Ground” celebrates God’s ultimate plan for salvation. Let it encourage you today.

*New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.