Coming Home to God

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Psalm 122:1

This season is a time to renew our commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ. Once upon a time, long ago, for many of us, we came to the Lord and surrendered our lives to Him. We admitted our need for a savior, put our faith in Him as the Son of God, pledged ourselves to Him as the Lord of our lives, repenting of trying to be masters of our own lives, and were baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and (this part is important), to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit Acts 2:38, Romans 10:9, 10.

It was an important day for us because on that day Jesus broke the chains of sin that bound us and set us free from Satan's grasp!

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage." Galatians 5:1

You see, that is just the problem. So many of us have allowed ourselves to be put back under the yoke of sin. We know that Satan goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Peter 5:8. We know that we were as much in the bonds of sin as anyone else Ephesians 2.

Let's take a look at Ephesians 2. Time for a reminder to move us forward. To help us clean up and freshen ourselves up in the presence of the Lord.

"And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others" Ephesians 2:1-3.

That mess was us. We were set from from it by the blood of Jesus Ephesians 2:13. But over time we just relaxed and forgot how deep was our sin, how deep was our despair. But now, like the Prodigal Son of Luke 15, we need to come to ourselves. We need to snap out of it and go home to our Father. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" 1 John 1:9. This is our time to turn back to Him who is good to receive us back to Him.

Now see these next verses in Ephesians 2:4-9:

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

This springtime refreshing needs to extend to our very souls! We need to dig down deep in our memories and remember what it was we were saved from and who it was that saved us! Jesus is a real Savior for our real sins! We need to remember that it was He, not us, that got us our of our mess, and it is to Him that we have pledged our allegiance. We didn't fix ourselves, He fixed the problem we had with God and brought us right into His throne room and introduced us as His brothers and sisters, as God's very own children! Hebrews 2:11, 4:16, 1 John 3:1.

We need to wake up from our slumber and remember our duty now as those who have been brought into God's family. All our sins have been done away with but with purpose! Check out Ephesians 2:10:

10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Look at John 5:17: "But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” Our God is a god who works! His Son, Jesus, was just like Him, a worker. And we are God's children. We were made in His image (Genesis 1:26, Matthew 22:20). Like Father like children. He saved us because He loved us (John 3:16) but he also gave us His Spirit in order to transform us into His own (2 Corinthians 3:18). He created us to work! No deadbeats in God's family. We are here with purpose. We are here to honor God with every breath and every once of energy that His Spirit provides. But we must seek His face. We must long to be near Him and in His presence. If we do so, He will draw us near to His very heart Isaiah 43:7, Jeremiah 29:13, John 7:37, Revelation 22:17.