Return To Me
With All Your Heart
Yet even now, says the LORD, return to
me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend
your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the LORD, your God, for he is
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and
relents from punishing. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and
leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the
LORD, your God?
Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a
fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Sanctify the congregation;
assemble the aged; gather the children, even infants at the breast. Let the
bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her canopy.
Between the vestibule and the altar
let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. Let them say, “Spare your
people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the
nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
It is hard to fathom that the LORD would
fight against His chosen people. But Israel had given their affections to other
Gods.
We too can learn that if our own
hearts wander away from God, we can count on Him to fight to bring us back. If
we become proud and self-assured, if reading God’s Word and spending time in
prayer seem like a waste of time, God will step in and deal with us.
God will fight against us for our own
good. He permits us to experience defeat so that we will listen to Him when He
asks us to rend our hearts and minds to Him.
Don’t wait for God to fight against
you before you seek His face. Return to Him today. God’s hand of discipline is
a hand of love.
Our Daily
Bread – August 23, 2006