“If you return, oh, Israel,” declares the Lord, “to me, you should return.”
– Jeremiah 4:1
That is a simple, needed, good word for every single one of us. God is calling His people in Jeremiah for to return to Him in truth in justice and in righteousness.
Jeremiah 4:2 says to break up the fallow ground of their hearts. Jeremiah 4:3 says to humble themselves before God and return to him. Let me just ask the question today and give you a moment to think about in your own life and for us to pray about together. Here’s the question: in what ways do you need to return to the Lord? In what specific ways have you turned away from the Lord?
Jeremiah 4:1 Leads Us to Return to the Lord
Are you turning away from the Lord? In what ways have you wandered from the Lord? In what ways have you not done what He has called you to do? And in what ways have you done, or are you doing that? Which He has not called you to do? How do you need to return to the Lord? This needs to be a regular question we ask in our relationships with God. Where is there need for confession and repentance turning back to God? That’s got things coming to my mind right now in my own life, my own heart and mind.
Jeremiah 4:1 Leads Us to Humbly Examine Our Lives
Oh God, we pray that you would give us soft hearts, you would break up the fallow ground of our hearts and help us to humbly examine our lives. You would help us buy your Spirit to see every single way we need to return to you. Specific ways we need to return to you. I pray for a continual turning from myself and sin to you. God, I pray this over every single person who’s listening right now, even after this short few-minute podcast episode is over that we might spend some extra time considering, praying, confessing, repenting over ways that we need to return to you.
Living in Continual Repentance for Sin
God, we pray that you would help us to live in continual repentance, continual sorrow over any sin, every sin that remains in us, continual turning from sin and ourselves in every way, turning from every way in which we’re not loving you with all our hearts, soul, mind, and strength and abiding in your love as we obey your word. God, do we want to live free from sin and full devotion to you. So help us to turn continually from sin and ourselves. So help us to turn continually and specifically, even today, even right now from sin and from ourselves. We pray this in Jesus’s name according to Jeremiah 4:1. And want to just leave this open-ended that God you would reveal to us every way we need to return to you right now.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
