Even Now

Written by Suzanne Benner

Are your days filled with loneliness? Are you trying to ignore the emptiness in your heart the pain your behavior is causing? We want to help.

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Some people run from God their whole lives. They may have been brought up in the church and know the truth, but have persistently refused to acknowledge that they need a Savior. Selfishly they live for pleasure, disregarding the pain their behavior causes and the emptiness in their hearts.

Others have known the joy of accepting forgiveness from God and receiving salvation through Jesus, but gradually, as the days and months and years pass, they have forgotten that He is to be Lord of their lives. Time has been swallowed up with the kids’ activities, struggling to make ends meet or save for the future, fitness and leisure. They have become complacent about sin and don’t think about holiness. God has been put on the back shelf, to be pulled out only in case of emergency.

Still others have decided that God’s mercy doesn’t extend to them. Their sin is too great to be forgiven; they feel they are too messed up to ever be helped.

There is hope for each of these people. God stands waiting with arms of mercy for His children to return.

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity.” (Joel 2:12, 13)

Regardless of the past, today is not too late to turn from going your own way. God extends to you an “even now”.

God always hears the prayer of sincere repentance. He longs for us to recognize our sin and to have that knowledge break our hearts. He is waiting for us to return to Him.

Holy God, thank you that You are gracious and compassionate and have provided a way for me to come to You, even now. May my sin break my heart, so that I will return to You.

Questions: What do you think the Scripture means when it says “Rend your heart and not your garments”? Why should sin break our hearts?

About the Author Suzanne Benner

Daily audio podcast: Hear today’s daily devotional, Even Now, read aloud on the Men’s Devotional Blog

Tags: church, forgiveness, God, mercy, mourning, Repentance, salvation, Savior, Suzanne Benner

One Response to “Even Now”

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TM says:

July 22, 2009 at 10:34 pm

RIght on time- thank you Lord, you are calling me back for a more intimate relationship, I have put you on the backburner for too long. The demands of life have taken me away from you. Time has been swallowed up by household & children activities never mind trying to work from home as well. I started to drift when i had to mange my mothers care as well. She was dying from cancer. i searched for you but felt i could not find you. I did not get the answer I wanted. Its 2 years since she passed. Forgive me Lord.
Give me wisdom Lord, teach me how to manage my time wisely and to put You first again! I need You!