A Call to Repentence

I'm focusing on verses 12 - 14 of the third chapter of Jeremiah today. We've read how Israel and Judah both turned away from the Lord and followed pagan gods - the Lord compared them to prostitutes.
In today's passage, we hear the Lord call out to his children as their loving Father; the same way he calls out to us today.
"Return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. I will frown on you no longer, for I am merciful, declares the Lord. I will not be angry with forever. Only acknowledge your guilt - you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods, under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed me. Return, faithless people, declares the Lord, for I am your husband."
The whole reason for the Lord creating each one of us is to have fellowship and a relationship with us - how awesome is that! He cries out to us to come to him and for us to put aside all the "things" we follow after to try to fill the voids in our lives that only He can fill.
In verse 14, as well as the following verse from Isaiah, the Lord compares our relationship to him as that of husband and wife. A relationship that brings two into one - holy in nature.
He says in Isaiah 54:5, "For your Maker is your husband - the Lord Almighty is his name - the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth. The Lord will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit - a wife who married young, only to be rejected, says your God."
How loving and merciful is our God - how amazing it is to me that he desires such intimate relationship with each one of us!
Today he is waiting for you to answer his call to come to him - he is standing at the door of your heart with open arms, to love you, to forgive you, to strengthen you and protect you. He can and will make your life new - once we come to him, all our sins are forgiven and then forgotten; he says in Psalm 103: 8 - 13, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is to the west, so far has he removed our trangressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him."
I pray that those who don't know him in this way, will call out to him today, to establish the relationship that he so desires. If you are a believer, and you've fallen away from that relationship, he is still there, and waiting for you to return your heart to him.
Have a blessed Wednesday - pray for our leaders, our soldiers, and our country.

Janelle