When you mess up and you see the face of God in your mind’s eye what does He look like? What expression does He have on His face? For too many of us we see God as a stern judge with a long, white beard. The expression on His face is one of disappointment and anger. I don’t see God that way now but I confess that I used to envision God like that. I wasn’t living right and I knew it, and I knew God knew it – and I was pretty sure He was not happy with me at all. The more I grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (II Peter 3:18) the expression on God’s face in my mind’s eye changes. God loves me and wants me to be close to Him. God loves you too and wants you to be His precious child forever.
The Jewish leaders were quick to judge and condemn and the spiritually poor people living in misery in first century Palestine knew it all too well. There was no way they could ever measure up to God’s demands. The weight of their sin and shortcomings was almost too much to bear. And then Jesus comes along and says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find REST for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
But what about when we sin and fall short of the glory of God day after day? Will God forgive us? Will He take us back if we have gone way off the deep end or jumped off the tracks? The answer: if we can repent God will forgive and take us back.
Even though the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 speaks of sinners from the world coming to Jesus for salvation, the principle still applies for Christians who have drifted away by the deceitfulness of sin and come back home to God.
Will God be the stern judge with a scowl on His face or will He take us back when we mess up bigtime and repent of our sins? Read Jeremiah 31:31-34; Amos 5:4,6,14 and Micah 7:18-19. Then listen Take Me Back by Jeremy Camp.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
Amos 5:4
This is what the Lord says to Israel:
“Seek me and live;
Amos 5:6
Seek the Lord and live,
or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire;
it will devour them,
and Bethel will have no one to quench it.
Amos 5:14
Seek good, not evil,
that you may live.
Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you,
just as you say he is.
Micah 7:18-19
Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy.
You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.