by Jim Hughes
Is. 30:15 The Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel says, "Only in returning to me and waiting for me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it!"
Some of you reading this today have wandered away from the Lord. You know you have and you are miserable. Things just are not right with your soul; peace eludes you. You may be trying to put on a good front so that others don't suspect anything is wrong. You may be trying not to think about it in the hopes that what is bothering you will go away.
Some of you just gradually wandered away from the Lord. You have neglected your soul and it has gotten to the point where you no longer know the peace of God. You no longer take an interest in reading your Bible or praying. Missing church doesn't bother you. You find yourself more and more likely to fall into sin. You have a bad attitude about life. You are mean to others. You are only concerned about you and what pleases you. You look in the mirror and you don't like what you see. You wonder how it could have happened.
We wander away from God when we do not properly feed our souls on a regular basis. We need to be reading and studying God's Word daily. We need to be constantly searching the Word for things we need to do with our lives. We need to be looking for things that are not right with our souls. We need to read the Word with the expectation of needing to change. We need to read it knowing that we fall short of God's holiness and must have His help to stay pure. We must always see ourselves in need of God. Don't believe Satan's lies that you can get along without it; you can't. It is a very big deal for those who want to be with God someday.
We wander away from God when we don't pray on a regular basis. We need to stay in touch with Him. We need to be prayer-minded. We need to constantly stay in touch with the Lord. We need to always bring the Lord into the mix of our living. Being in an attitude of prayer never loses its importance for those who want to see God.
We wander from God when we don't worship Him on a regular basis. God created us with a need for worship. Everyone is a worshiper; it's just a matter of who or what we worship. We must never lose our sense of worship before God, our adoration of Him, our sense of gratitude and praise.
Don't be like those who wander away from the Lord and refuse to return to Him. Humble yourself before God, confess your sins to Him, seek His forgiveness, and you will once again know the peace of God. Don't settle for anything less than knowing it is well with your soul.
About the Author:
Spending his formative years in Ft. Wayne, IN, Jim followed the love of his life to southeast Iowa where they married and have spent the majority of their lives. Jim has pastored several churches throughout his life and has worked many years in local factories to help support his family. The father of two married adult children and one son still at home, Jim is a first-time author.
C Through Marriage came into being through many years of pastoral and life experiences. The book first took on a life of its own over 20 years ago when I sought to address the much publicized moral failures of prominent leaders in the church. In the chapter on Chasity, I include the guideliness that I developed then to protect one's self from such failures.
I am a firm believer in order to make sense out of life you have to use much common sense. We need to get back to the basics of what has worked for many, many generations. If is isn't broke, why try to fix it? I strive to return to the basics of what really works in all my writings.
