Devotional from January 2025 Christian Union National Fast
By Sheri Casali, ministry fellow at Christian Union Libertas at Brown University
"'Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.'
'Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God.'"-Jeremiah 3:22
The words of the Lord can pierce our hearts when we are convicted as faithless. We may sometimes believe that we are walking in faith, when in reality the Lord sees us as faithless. Yet He is full of unending love and mercy with the promise to heal our waywardness, given we return to Him with a repentant heart. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we are invited to respond to Jesus and resist hardening our hearts in stubborn rebellion when He speaks to us.
Hebrews 3:15 reads, “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion.” Often, when we are walking in rebellion, it is because we have somehow come to believe the deception that we can obtain what we want outside of the will of God. In essence, we misplace faith by putting faith in our sinful, finite selves. We forget that only an omniscient, infinite God knows what we truly need. Israel was known to disobey God and defy His perfect will for their lives. The Lord, in His undying love for them, called out to them with a plea and a promise to restore them back to faithful sons and daughters. Each time the Lord beckons us back to Himself, we have the choice to reject or respond to His voice.
A positive response towards our Father will result in right fellowship with Him, perfect peace, and the promises He has spoken over our lives. If we choose to disobey and harden our hearts, the result often leads to unnecessary delay, discipline from our sinful choices and most times painful consequences. In the West, we can inadvertently believe that the Lord is there for us and will take care of all our requests upon our call to Him. Although this is partially true, we can often forget that we are in a covenant relationship with the Lord, which also requires our full surrender and obedience.
Throughout the Scriptures, when God has made a promise, He first invites the recipient of the promise to make the choice to obey Him. In Genesis 12:1-3 the Lord said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all families of the earth shall be blessed."
We see in this verse the Lord first asking Abram to take action, before the Lord does His part in fulfilling His destiny. In turn, by following the Lord’s voice, Abram not only fulfilled his destiny through his obedience, but his obedience had a ripple effect and fulfilled the destiny of generations to come. There is purpose and promise directly tied into our willingness to listen and obey the Lord at all costs. Today, if you are longing for more of the Lord’s presence, His perfect will over your life, and to witness a great awakening in our country, the invitation is to simply respond to the Lord’s call to return. Take some time today to ponder your ways. Willingly confess before Him the areas of your life that He reveals as faithlessness. With the help of His Spirit, actively repent from these areas and expectantly wait to be amazed by the way our Almighty, providential God responds to your obedience.
Father, as Israel was disciplined for their unfaithfulness towards you, convict our hearts of areas in which we have turned from Your perfect ways. We desire to be a generation that yields our hearts immediately to Your voice. Lead us on paths of righteousness according to Your perfect will for our lives. Help us to resist the lies and temptations that persuade us to stubbornly disobey you. Have mercy on this nation for rejecting Your voice and denying Your presence. Turn and be gracious to us and prepare the way of Your soon-coming return. Give us the strength to stand united in confident hope as we rely on Your promise to be faithful to Your people. Amen.
