Be Still - January 1, 2023

Deuteronomy 4: 29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul. (NIV)

Sin has costly consequences.*

This verse is from a passage in which Moses discusses the Israelites’ potential to “become corrupt” and what will happen to them if they do. He tells them that God will become angry; Moses will call heaven and earth as witnesses against them; and God will send them into exile in foreign lands where only a remnant of them will survive and where they will degenerate into worshippers of “man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.”

And now for the good news: if they repent, God can be found – even in the pagan culture surrounding them. There is a message for us as well in this picture of the merciful God of the Old Testament. Looking for God with all your heart and all your soul involves more than just a cry for rescue. True repentance, while it is a spiritual change, requires changed behavior as well. Jesus said that we must “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3: 8)

Another application for today is found in the words with which the verse begins: “But if from there . . .” When we return to God, we start where we are. Have you hit rock bottom? Seek God there. You don’t have to climb your way out of the pit – God will come to you there.

And a final warning to accompany the promise of mercy: God did not promise to return them to their homeland, only that he would return to them. When God accepts our sincere repentance, he doesn’t promise that our lives will be restored to their previous condition. There are consequences when we choose to abandon our walk with God. The type of repentance that is lacking the total commitment of all the heart and all the soul will not be able to accept the reality: damage cannot be undone, and the people we hurt may not be ready to forgive us. But take comfort from the promise: “For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you . . .” (verse 31)

For there is no end to the mercies of God. . .*