Today’s Encouragement is, “Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the LORD says: “O Israel, my faithless people, come home to me again, for I am merciful. I will not be angry with you forever.” Jeremiah 3:12 NLT
Come Home –
It’s true. If we are honest – We are faithless people.
Believers today are comparable to God’s people, Israel of the Old Testament. Every aspect of the history of God’s chosen people, Israel, can be directly related to our spiritual lives today as His chosen people. Their rebellion, God’s call to repent, their repentance, God’s subsequent restoration, then, when life again becomes easy, their unfaithful disobedience restarts the whole process again.
Today, we are still flawed, imperfect beings. Rebellious and unfaithful! It’s not very flattering, nor socially acceptable to say this, but God repeatedly used the example of marital unfaithfulness in describing the way that His people rebelled against Him.
In this analogy, God is the Husband and we, His chosen people, are His bride, His wife. And He is always perfectly faithful to us; yet we are so often unfaithful to Him!
It’s a straightforward, painful, deeply emotional, and heartbreaking truth. And yet, this uncomfortable, shocking example is how God repeatedly chooses to describe us, and our relationship to Him!
But God is merciful beyond our human comprehension! Even though we have been and still often are unfaithful to Him, He has given us Jesus, the Way for us to return to Him… “Come home to me again, for I am merciful!”
Father, we confess our unfaithfulness in so many ways! We don’t deserve Your forgiveness, but because You are Good, Merciful, and You Love us perfectly, we repent, we choose to come home to You!
Coming Home
Mack Brock