U-Turn

 

God promises to King Solomon of Israel in 2 Chronicles 7:14, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

 

I know many who claim this passage of Holy Scripture as their “Life Verse”, and rightfully so. It is like a mini-gospel message, packed with love, hope, forgiveness, assurance, security, and a guarantee from our heavenly Father in this “if/then” pledge. The repentant born-again Believer, who made a U-turn from sin to accept, follow and obey Jesus became the child of God, the citizen of the kingdom of Heaven and the body of the Lord Jesus Christ; they are God’s people who are called by His name. Acts 4:10a, 11-12 proclaims “let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth [the promised Messiah], whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead … This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone (Psalm 118:22).’ Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” 

 

Jesus Christ, the gift of God, the Savior of the world sent by the Father as atoning sacrifice for sin, to redeem His believing people unto salvation from eternal damnation and transformed their hearts into eternal lives with reconciliation with God in Heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains, “God made Him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus declared in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Apostle John confirms in 1 John 5:11-13 “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son [Jesus Christ]. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

 

Egocentric, self-centered pride is defined as: Inordinate self-esteem; an unreasonable conceit of one's own superiority in talents, beauty, wealth, accomplishments, rank or elevation in office, which manifests itself in lofty airs, distance, reserve, and often in contempt of others. It is a pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt. All godless pride is abject and mean. The opposite of this pride is humility, which is defined as: freedom from pride and arrogance; humbleness of mind; a modest estimate of one's own worth. In theology, humility consists in lowliness of mind; a deep sense of one's own unworthiness in the sight of God, self-abasement, penitence for sin, and submission to the divine will. This is the U-turn that our heavenly God speaks of when he says, My people will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways. 

 

We saw last post that sin is defined as: The voluntary departure of a moral agent from a known rule of rectitude or duty, prescribed by God; any voluntary transgression of the divine law, or violation of a divine command; a wicked act of iniquity. So, we make a U-turn from our wicked ways of the sin nature, seek God's face, obey the Lord and walk in the Spirit. And in doing so we become the righteousness of God, with the fruit of the Spirit flowing from us like “living water”, completely forgiven, totally healed and truly blessed. You turn.

 

In Christ, Brian