Turning To God

Repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away. Then times of refreshment will come from the presence of the Lord, and he will again send you Jesus, your appointed Messiah.

Acts 3:19-20

This promise that Peter spoke to the Jews in the Temple centuries ago is equally alive and relevant today. As everyone in the city rushed to Solomon’s Colonnade to see the once-lame beggar who was now walking, leaping, and praising God, Peter explained that the beggar had been healed not by human power or godliness but by faith in the name of Jesus: “This is the same Jesus whom you handed over and rejected before Pilate. . . . You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead” (Acts 3:13, 15). Peter acknowledged that what they and their leaders did to Jesus was done in ignorance, but now they had the opportunity of a lifetime—if they would turn from their sins and turn to God.

This is the same offer the Father graciously makes to each person on earth today. Because of the life, death, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus, we can humble ourselves before God and confess our sins; then the gates of heaven open wide. If we refuse God’s invitation, the lines of communication get clogged to the point where we can’t sense the Lord’s presence. In addition, Psalm 66:18 says that the Lord does not listen to the prayers of those who harbor sin in their hearts and reject repentance.

When we confess our wrongs, we enter into a relationship with the living Lord, and he gives his Spirit to live in us. He creates a new heart within us. Times of refreshment come, just as he promised: his living water and life flow through us and overflow to others. What a great promise and invitation to turn from a life of sin to experience the freeing power of forgiveness!

God of mercy, what a great promise and invitation to turn from our sins and experience the freeing power of forgiveness. Create a clean heart in me, and let the times of refreshment come!

The most marvelous ingredient in the forgiveness of God is that he also forgets, the one thing a human being can never do. Forgetting with God is a divine attribute; God’s forgiveness forgets.

Oswald Chambers(1874–1917), Scottish minister and teacher