“O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.”
Today's reading — Luke 15:4-10▾
Yesterday, I explained how a soul can be born again by the Spirit of God. Today, I will discuss how someone who was once born again by the Spirit but has slipped back into his or her former life can be revived. If you were once fervent in the things of God but now feel an emptiness in your soul because you lost that fervency over time and have returned to sin, God can revive you again.
My God does not abandon His lost sheep or wounded soldiers. A sheep may have been disobedient and wandered off, but God will seek to bring it back to safety, as Jesus’ parable in today’s Bible reading tells us. Also, if, while on the battlefield, the devil brings down one of His soldiers and captures the fellow, perhaps as a result of his or her carelessness, the Almighty God will stretch His hand to the fellow immediately so He can pull such a person out of the enemy’s camp and return him or her to Himself.
Beloved, if you are a lost sheep or a wounded soldier, I want you to know that God has not abandoned you. He is making you read this devotional now because He wants you to know that He still loves you, and He wants you to return to Him. You just have to tell Him that you want to return home, and He will help you through the process of revival. If you are living in sin, don’t stay in your vomit. Renounce sin now and return to your Father; He still loves you.
Proverbs 24:16 says that the righteous will fall seven times and get up again. You may have fallen into sin multiple times, but that is not what matters. What matters is that you do not stay down; you must get up again. Even if the whole world thinks that you are still standing in Christ, ignore the theatrics of looking fervent in the eyes of people and return to God. Go on your knees and tell your Father that you are sorry, and you want to reconnect with Him. You must note, however, that rebirth is instant, but revival is a process. If someone’s heart stops and doctors revive the person’s heart, they don’t just stop there with the person. They will admit him or her to the hospital to undergo the process of full recovery. Similarly, you would need to go through the process of revival, which I will discuss tomorrow.