The Return - Wednesday July 25, 2012
In repentance and rest you shall be saved, in quietness and trust is your strength. But you were not willing... Isaiah 30:15
To me, as a child, the word "repent" implied God was offended because of my sins. But if I stopped sinning and did good things, I could precipitate a change of His mind about me. If I stopped being smelly, God would desire me and would cover my past offenses with Christ's blood.
Yet, over the years, I saw a very different God in my Bible. In Jeremiah 3, I saw a passionate lover who longed to be reunited with His polluted, adulterous sweetheart. "Return," He cried (Hebrew "Shub!"). In Isaiah 44, I saw He'd already taken care of the stench. Just return. Shub!
Yes, the Lord counseled repentance in Isaiah 30:15, but the Hebrew word is derived from "shub", and I sense the same flavor-God with a heart of longing for us. Return!
Jesus' story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) has the same heartbeat about repentance-a broken-hearted father, waiting and longing for the return of his son.
Because "shub" was the word form used in Isaiah 30, I contemplated repentance. Return! A bride can't have it both ways-her affair and her husband. She has to leave the adultery behind to return to the one who desires her. The main change is in her heart-wanting her first love. In returning to her husband, she leaves behind all the stinky stuff that violates the friendship. Returning is repentance.
Your offensive behaviors didn't change God's heart for you. His desire for you has never wavered. Rather, repentance is a return to the relationship-to Him who died for you while you still stunk.
Submitted by:
Rita Bergen
Lee's Summit Community Church
Lee's Summit, Missouri
One-Year Reading Plan:
2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14
Romans 9:1-24
Psalms 19:1-14
Proverbs 20:1
[Read
Online]
© 2024 Great Commission Association of Churches, Inc All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publisher.
Online Bible Services provided by
The Bible Gateway (TM) a service of
Gospel
Communications Network.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCB-ES: Unless otherwise identified, Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible B) The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy, Bible, New International Version, copyright B) 1973, 1978, 1984 by InternaB-tional Bible Society; (NKJV) are from New King James Version B) 1982 by Thomas Nelson; (NLT) are from the New Living Translation, B) 1996, Tyndale House Publishers; (ESV) are from English Standard VersionB., B) 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers; (TM) are from The Message B) 1993 by NavPress Publishers.