Repentance

Today's Readings: Jeremiah 2:23-37, 3:1-25, 4:1-31, 5:1-19

Highlighted Verses and my thoughts:

"And yet you say, 'I have done nothing wrong. Surely God isn't angry with me!' But now I will punish you severely because you claim you have not sinned." Jeremiah 2:35

"But despise all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me. She has only pretended to be sorry. I, the Lord, have spoken!" Jeremiah 3:10

"They are determined, with faces set like stone; they have refused to repent." Jeremiah 5:3b

"'Yet even in those days I will not blot you out completely,' says the Lord." Jeremiah 5:18

Still, thousands of years after the Lord spoke through Jeremiah to the people of Judah and Israel, it is still the same.  We claim we do not sin.  So many times, when we do admit our sins, we only pretend to be sorry; but, most of the time we refuse to repent.  But, God loves us so much, and desires to be a part of our lives so much that he does not give up on us.

"Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God"

"Confess that you refused to listen to my voice"

"Return home, you wayward children"

excerpts from Jeremiah 3:13-14

God gave Jeremiah the words that give us hope, just as they gave the hope to a wayward Israel.  He told them, and he tells us today, exactly what we must do in order to come home again to our merciful God: Admit and confess our sins and return to him.  It is so simple, yet we make it so difficult.

My response to God: Loving and merciful God, I wonder over and over why you have not given up on me.  Show me when I am wrong and am too stubborn to see it for myself.  Lead me to my knees, to that place where I see in myself what you see, and where I confess, repent, and return to you.  Thank you for your forgiveness...over and over again.