Day 15: Adults
Return to God
“I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart” (Jeremiah 24:7 NIV).
A favorite book of the Bible for many believers is the book of Jeremiah. Within its pages we frequent (counting carefully, 112) admonitions to return to God. The representation of God we get is that of a God who continually shadows His chosen people in spite of their decisions to exclude Him from their lives. God wants to remind them, “My children, it doesn’t have to be this way!”
Reminisce about your Christian life. How many times have you needed the pardoning mercy of God? How many times have you deserved him to kick you or out of the kingdom? A favorite hymn for many Christians is “Come Thou Fount.” How often we find ourselves repeating the familiar words:
Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.
Prone to leave the God I Love!
Those words relate the human condition that we find ourselves experiencing all too often. We can be ever so devoted to the Lord, enjoying the marvels of a personal relationship with Him. Our joy may be so complete that we cannot even fathom wandering from Him again. Then it happens—we gradually slip away until one day we find ourselves at the edge of a cliff as we ask ourselves, “How did I ever get this far away from God?”
Jeremiah 24:7 should give us a great hope, because God is not a God who is intent on “slugging us over the head” when we step out of line. To the contrary, he’s a God that is constantly willing to forgive and restore us, and on top of all that, gift us with a “heart to know Him.”
Back to the hymn:
Take my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for thy courts above.
Prayer:
“Holy Father, accept our pleas for forgiveness. So often we wander, finding ourselves needing to return to you. But yet, You follow us and demonstrate Your love for us as you show us mercy over and over again. Thank you for those mercies!” Amen.