RETURN TO ME! 9/30/12

A FEW YEARS AGO a movie came out called; “Return to me!” It was about a prosperous career woman who worked in a zoo with the Apes. She is killed in a car accident and as a donor, her heart was transplanted into a young woman who worked in her father’s restaurant. I can’t remember the names of the stars, or all of the story except that the first woman’s husband, during his grieving for his wife, meets the woman who now has his wife’s heart. I loved, the love story and it ended happily ever after; which of course, is my favorite kind of story! When the grieving young man meets the woman with the new heart, she is afraid to reveal the scar she bears, and when she finds out that the heart she was given, had belong to his wife, she runs away. When the young man comes to his senses he looks for her and finds her.

HAVE YOU EVER ran away from the one who holds your heart? Now I am not referring to the romantic side of the heart filled with love for some someone. I am referring to the one who lives within you and fills your heart and soul with Godly purpose. When you come to your senses do you search for that one? Do you reveal your need for your continued relationship?

AT WEDNESDAY NIGHT bible study we were in chapter one of Zechariah. The prophet of old was talking to those who returned from captivity in Babylon for the purpose of rebuilding God’s Temple. His message was a call for national repentance! Sounds familiar doesn’t it? We have a call into our Nation for a 40 day prayer fast, for national repentance. We are committed to humble ourselves and to seek God’s face. We come with repentant hearts so that He will hear our prayers and heal our land.

THE LORD of hosts says to Zechariah; “The Lord was very angry with your fathers.” Therefore, says the Lord of hosts; ”Return to me, and I will return to you!” Zechariah 1:2-3. When I heard that scripture, I felt my heart within my breast skip a beat. Maybe that is a literal interpretation of God spoke to me! I felt excited! If we return to Him, He will return to us! I know what that said to me, but what does it say to you?

WHEN I return to the Lord, it means that I have been off wandering in the desert without Him. My desert may be the place I have allowed myself to go, when I am not in fellowship with my church family. Perhaps it is going to places, and doing things that the Holy Spirit within me doesn’t like. It may be causing distress for the one who call’s my body His temple. If we are to return then that means we have been away!

WHEN THE LORD says; “Return to me and I will return to you” says that while I was away, He also left me! Otherwise, why would He say; “I will return to you?” “Turn to Him from whom you have deeply revolted, O people of Israel. For in that day every one shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you.” Isaiah 31:6-7

THE PROPHET Malachi also speaks for the Lord to His people when he says; “From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statues and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you. But you say; ‘How shall we return? Will man rob God?’ Yet you are robbing me, with your tithes and offerings.” Malachi 3:7-8 We know when we withhold our tithes and offerings how difficult it is to pay our bills. We know that when we forsake our Lord, peace is gone!

WE LIVE in a world of turmoil and unrest. “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you men of double mind.” James 4:8 We have been called to 40 DAYS OF PRAYER! You are not limited to 40 days but it is a good start. Lifting our voices in praise and thanksgiving is a call to worship. Let’s return to Him so that He can return to us! One voice; in unity; one Nation under God, who are called by His name. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!” By Jane Ann Crenshaw 9/27/12