GOD Heals Our Wayward Hearts

You gave your life to CHRIST JESUS but then you fell off the path.

At first it was an occasional weekday evening event that caused you to miss Bible study but seemed like it was important to do at the time. 

Then it was the neighborhood soccer tournaments and you got the call from the committee chairperson, they really need you for that goalie position – “we couldn’t have won without you last year!” It’s on Sundays and you will have to miss church but…and you love the barbecue picnics after the games. It’s only for a short while…you’ll be back.

But soon you are spending less and less time with other believers, praying little and reading the Bible not at all. You are too busy doing life!

But of late you are not having as much fun and are more than a little uncomfortable with some of the activities your “sophisticated” unbelieving friends love to do. And you burn inside when you object and they laugh at you for acting like those “stodgy Bible-thumpers you used to spend so much time with before we rescued you.”  

These days you are mostly frustrated with it all – such a waste, but you put on a happy face and hang on anyway. You know you should say “no” to some things but you seem unable to. You are stuck in a rut that seems to be too deep to climb out of. You realize that you are in a place you don’t want to be and you don’t know if and how you can go back to where you ought to be – back to GOD and His people.

You are no longer having FUN! You miss GOD and His Bible-thumpers!

There are believers everywhere in similar situations. Some have been “away” from GOD for so long that they forgot everything they used to know and need now to restore a godly relationship. Some are so disheartened by the severity of their misdeeds that they are convinced that GOD cannot still love them nor want to take them back.

Don’t be discouraged. Child of GOD, you CAN return to your Father!

One who earnestly gave his or her life to CHRIST can never cease to bear the Father’s NAME. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, John 1:12.

We can fall away spiritually but never relationally. We are children of GOD once we have come to Him through CHRIST JESUS, and we will remain forever in GOD’s heart. Nothing we do can separate us from GOD’s love (Romans 8:31-39). It is for this reason that we can never find true happiness away from the Father.

English Theologian Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) puts it this way: “…if you are a child of God, you will never be happy in sin. You are spoiled for the world, the flesh, and the devil. When you were regenerated there was put into you a vital principle, which can never be content to dwell in the dead world. You will have to come back, if indeed you belong to the family.”

How do we come back to GOD?

“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”  Jeremiah 3:22a

Stop everything this minute and just come! GOD wants us just as we are today, right now. Whatever our state. He invites “wayward children” to return. GOD does not say, "Return, repentant children;" or “be healed of your wrong-doing and then you can come back to Me.” We seem to think that we must make ourselves better or more worthy, before we come back to the Father.

No! We come just as we are, with no goodness of our own, no virtue, no hope. GOD already knows everything we have done – nothing in all creation is hidden from Him; we are naked and exposed before GOD’s eyes (Hebrews 4:13). As wretched as we are GOD has already rescued our lives which are dominated by sin and death. He has done it through JESUS CHRIST our LORD! (Romans 7:24-25)

We are incapable of rescuing and healing ourselves – GOD alone can cure our waywardness and backsliding! He invites us only to “Return!” and we must respond immediately, “Yes, we’re coming, for you are the Lord our God.” Jeremiah 3:22b

What’s the one thing we CAN do on our own?

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. Colossians 3:2

We must redirect our thoughts to thinking about GOD, who He used to be to us before we strayed. We have known the goodness of the Father who is the same today as He was before we strayed.

We can rekindle those feelings of safety, joy and peace when we remember the things He has done, the prayers He answered; the resources He provided. That we are now and have always been totally dependent upon him who gives us our daily bread.

We can think about the indisputable fact that GOD created us in His own image and likeness and the unorthodox and unprecedented manner by which we became a child of GOD! That our salvation came as a result of the suffering and death of His own SON on the cross. We must remember that we are not our own, we have been bought with a price; that the Holy Spirit is living in us and we are His temple. (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

As we think constantly about the riches of GOD’s kindness, HIS forbearance and patience, He will again become the GREAT I AM and the ALMIGHTY GOD before our eyes. And before we are aware of it GOD’s Spirit and His goodness will do what He always intended, gently lead us to repentance and reconciliation with Him.

GOD will heal our wayward hearts!

The Lord…He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

Prayer and Thanksgiving: Our good and faithful Father in Heaven, we thank YOU that YOU are our GOD and will always be our LORD and our guide even unto death. We thank YOU that while we are faithless YOU remain faithful for YOU cannot deny YOURSELF. We thank YOU that YOU do not judge us as we deserve, but are patient and long-suffering. We thank YOU that YOU rain on the righteous and the unrighteous and for that reason, we pray for those who are YOURS and have strayed as well as for those who have not yet come to the knowledge of YOUR saving grace. YOU have not left or forsaken any but desire that everyone should come to repentance. Forgive us and continue to woo us – all whom YOU have given to YOUR SON will come. We pray in the NAME that is above every NAME, JESUS CHRIST our LORD.  Amen!

Always by God’s Word and prayer,

Cecile