Monday, June 25, 2012

Keeping Your Way Pure



“How can a young man keep his way pure?”  This is the answer, “By obeying your word,” it says this in Psalms 119:9.

God said this in Jeremiah 29:10-14 to the Jews, God’s chosen people, when they were in captivity in Babylon, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You will be in Babylon for seventy years.  But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.  For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord.  ‘They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  In those days when you pray, I will listen.  If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.  I will be found by you,’ says the Lord. ‘I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes.  I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.’”

Think about this; is anything impossible with the Lord?  The only things God can’t, or won’t, do are the things He chooses not to, like sin, for-instance.  When I think about God’s love, grace and some of His other attributes I wonder how this can be true, that God never gave up completely on His people.  It is amazing how loving, patient and compassionate the Lord is.  When I think about how the Jews treated their God, and how out of love God would correct them, because He is a just God, He would still move on their behalf and forgive and rescue them when they came to their senses, repented and cried out to Him.  

This reminds me of a story in the Bible about a son who wanted his inheritance but when he got it he went away and spent it very foolishly and ended up broke.  Finding the only job he could feeding pigs, which was an abomination to him, he finally came to his senses and started thinking about his father and all the servants he had and how well he took care of them.  Then he decided to go home and face his father and ask him for mercy saying, “I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, I am no longer worthy to be called your son,” which I call repentance; mercy, forgiveness and restoration is what he received.  This young man wasn’t kicked out of the house, what he did he chose to do.  When he spent the money on prostitutes and sinful living that was also his choice.  Humbling himself and repenting was his choice also, just like the Jews at an earlier time in history.  The father hadn’t changed he still loved the son and he looked daily for him to come home.  This story is found in Luke 15:11-32.  The father in this story represents God and His amazing love and grace, praise His name.

This is what God is looking, and waiting, for from every sinner.  Confession, repentance and a humble and contrite heart, God will never despise these things.  He always draws to the humble and resists the proud.  So if you are in a backslidden state or if you are not a believer at all this message is for you.  God loves you and wants you to come back to Him.  So don’t put it off any longer and don’t make the Lord wait another moment, make the right choice now, like the prodigal son did and found a loving father running to him with arms wide open to embrace him.  Let God embrace you also.  May God bless you and have a wonderful day!!


                                                                        

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