Turn Back

Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness;
According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions. Psalm 51:1

Could it really be that simple? Surely not. How could it be that easy? I had started my walk with the Lord late in high school with initial enthusiasm. But somehow along the way I had turned aside. I wanted to run my own life. I was a lot like Eve, surely God was holding out on me. I knew what I wanted my life to look like and I wasn’t sure if God wanted the same for me. I chose to go my own way. But now I was tired of trying to please myself. It wasn’t working anyway. And the heavy hand of God was upon me, I could sense that I had grieved the Holy Spirit. I wanted to come back into the fold. I understood that the Lord was waiting for me to repent, to turn back. Was that all I needed to do? Could it really be that simple?

In the Christian life there is good news and bad news. The bad news first. Sometimes we may choose to go our own way. There are times we may compromise or turn aside. Maybe it is because we are bummed. We may feel like God has let us down, we wanted something badly, prayed for it and it didn’t happen. We don’t like His plan so we choose to go our own way. Sometimes we turn aside because we get too busy. Life gets in the way. We have commitments and obligations. God gets crowded out of our schedule. Sometimes we turn aside because we are simply bored. We want to entertain ourselves, we follow the shiny objects that promise pleasure. Bummed, busy, bored, no matter what the reason, we turn aside. The old maxim is still true, if you are not as close to God as you once were, guess who moved?

The good news is God is the God of compassion and mercy. He is waiting for you to turn back to Him. This is something He will not do for you, you must do it for yourself. This is part of being made in the image of God, we have personal responsibility for our actions. God respects our free will. When we have chosen to go our own way, we are the only ones who can choose to turn back. Repent. This is an old-timey religious sounding word that simply means to turn back, to stop going your way and start going God’s way.

Jesus told a wonderful story called The Prodigal Son that illustrates what goes on in our heavenly Father’s heart when we repent. There is a lot to this story but I want to focus on just one aspect. It is about a son who gathered all his inheritance and went off on a journey. He squandered his estate with loose living. When things got really bad he found himself slopping pigs, longing for their food. He came to his senses and realized he had sinned against his father and heaven. He turned and came back to his father. While he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him and ran and embraced him and kissed him. He put his best robe on him and a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Then he threw a great party with music and dancing in celebration of the return of his lost son.

This is a picture of our gracious heavenly Father. He is full of compassion and love. If we have turned away from Him to go our own way He is waiting for us to return, looking from afar while we are a long way off. When we turn to Him in repentance, He runs to us with forgiveness and restoration and reconciliation. I cannot think of another time in the Bible where we see our father run!

God was good to me during my season of wandering away from Him. He waited for me to come to my senses and turn back to Him. He never wrote me off or gave up on me. His eye was on me as I struggled with my “how could this be so easy” thoughts. He gently brought to my mind that it was arrogant of me to think the precious blood of His son was insufficient to cover my sins. He reminded me of the verses that promise He will remember my sins no more, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and as far as the east is from the west so far has He removed my sins from me. It wasn’t easy for the Father to give His son or for the son to go all the way through the horrors of the cross to make all of this possible, but it really was just that easy for me to turn back to Him!

There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. Luke 15:10

Dear Heavenly Father,
I thank You for your compassion and mercy on your children who wander away from following You. Thank you that You are waiting for us to turn so that you can run to us with forgiveness and restitution. Thank You for the provision of repentance. Give us the grace to draw near to You because then You will draw near to us.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen