Deuteronomy 30:2
“and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons”.
The previous verse spoke of the consequence of forsaking The Lord. In a general sense we are cutting ourselves off from His blessings. We put ourselves in a self imposed drought.
The things He wants to do with us are to fill our hearts with joy, grant us success in His ways, have healthy relationships and so on. David said of this life, “my cup runneth over.” His heart and life were so full that it was more than he could have dreamed.
So, what’s the problem? We tend to want more. The Lord does give us boundaries and He wants to guide us. At times we have problems with that. We go outside of those bounds. We all do this in some fashion. Some though small stubborn choices while others commit to more drastic moves. We may do it for an hour or it might be more drastic and we do it for years. Jesus referred to the latter as prodigals.
We may get those things we wanted, but at the cost of distancing ourselves from God and cutting ourselves off from the life of God. This is the self imposed drought. The rest of our lives begin to dry up. In Jesus’ story of the prodigal son, it’s at this point he says to himself, “But when he came to his senses” Luke 15:17. We do the same thing. We look back longingly at the good things and the peaceful heart and come to our senses.
This is part of the growth process. We all stray in one way or another. Some never do it with their actions, but in their hearts. They are far from The Lord, while still doing all the right things.
Admitting that we all do this shouldn’t allow us to think that it’s a good thing. It would be nice to never experience the heartache and problems we make for ourselves. Some get into destructive behavior and damage their health, minds and relationships.
When we do return, we bring great joy to The Lord. The prodigal’s father threw a party (Luke 15). A nice maturity level would avoid straying for that one wouldn’t want to hurt Him. Another level is trusting that He wants our best and knowing that staying in His love is the best place to be.
Lord, thanks that You allow us to come back. Help us to learn those lessons and stay close to You.