Have you returned? Are you still returning?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
(Joel 2:12-13 (NIV))

Are you ashamed of where you have been?

Perhaps I should ask if you are ashamed of where you are?

Let’s face the hard, unadulterated truth. We are all human, and human nature means that we are not perfect. We have all done things that are far from what Jesus calls us to do. Most of us like to think that this is all in our past, after all, we have accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior! In reality, we still sin. Our human nature doesn’t go away. We must allow the Holy Spirit to influence our lives, to control the sinful nature that lies within all of us.

We must repent daily!

When we repent, we turn away from our sin and return to God. It is an act of obedience that we must do daily, if not more often, for our sinful, human nature will try to make us return to our sin.

Accepting Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior is not the end of your walk with Jesus. It is only the beginning! When you go for a walk, do you ever find yourself making mid-walk corrections and adjustments to make sure that you end up at your ultimate destination. Sometimes you must turn left. Other times you must turn right. Along the way you may have to step over or around obstacles. Sometimes you must turn around or return. Walking with Jesus is much the same way. Our sinful nature will start to lead us down a path that is not right. We must be sure to listen for the call to return to the path that Jesus desires for us to walk.

Have you returned to the Lord to be able to begin anew? Are you returning to Him on a daily basis?

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Does God consider you to be His enemy? Repent!

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance on his foes
and maintains his wrath against his enemies.
The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
and clouds are the dust of his feet.
(Nahum 1:2-3 (NIV))

We don’t hear this side of God preached very often in society today. We hear that God is love. We hear statements like if God loves me, why would He condemn me to hell? We hear people claim that this is Old Testament and that God is no longer like that since Jesus came to this earth.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
(Hebrews 13:8 (NIV))

God never changes.

In an effort to offer salvation to a lost and dying world, God sent His only begotten Son to bring us back to Himself.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John 1:14 (NIV))

Just to clarify, God is love, but His love is a just love. He cannot associate with sin. He cannot bring imperfection into His perfect presence. In essence, anyone who sins is a foe, is an enemy of God. That is why Jesus came to walk this earth. He came to freely take our sin upon Himself so that we could have a way to be sin free. He came so that we could transfer God’s wrath away from our sinful lives. He came that we can be sin free in the eyes of God.

The Lord is a jealous and avenging God, yet He has offered each of us a way to escape His vengeance. He has transferred that vengeance and wrath onto a perfect life. A life that was and is fully God and fully man.

God offered us grace.

Don’t throw away God’s gift of grace. Don’t find yourself being labeled as an enemy of God!

Copyright 1998 – 2017 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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Have you accepted God’s way to grace and mercy?

Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ^©

`The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.’
(Numbers 14:18 (NIV))

We need to be thankful that God is slow to anger. If he were not, there would be many of us, if not all of us, who would not be where we are now. We would not be part of the grace and salvation that God offered through the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. God is abounding in grace and salvation, yet, He is also a just God. If you reject Him, He will punish you by the actions that you have committed. He gives you every opportunity to accept His gift before He acts.

Sadly, far too many are not only rejecting God’s gift, they are blatantly turning against God in all that they do. It seems that if the Bible calls something a sin, then the world embraces it. If the Bible calls something righteous, then the world rejects it.

I know that the Lord is slow to anger, but I often wonder just how much longer He will wait before the things written of begin to unfold. Whether that is tomorrow or a thousand years from now, our frail human existence could end any minute. We must be prepared. We must be ready to meet God on His terms.

God’s terms call for repentance through accepting His Son, Jesus, as your personal Lord and Savior. There is no other way!

Have you fully accepted God’s way to grace and mercy?

Copyright 1998 – 2015 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
http://www.dailylivingministries.org
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