Come to Yourself!

“When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to the land of the enemy, far or near; yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of those who took them captive, saying, ‘We have sinned and done wrong, we have committed wickedness’; and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul..., and pray to You...: then hear in heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You, and all their transgressions which they have transgressed against You; and grant them compassion...” (I Kings 8:46-53)

All of us who have been raised to do the right things and treat others the right way have, more times than we care to admit, sinned against God and done things we know we should not do.  Many times we've asked those we've offended for forgiveness, or if we've been offended, we've been asked by the offender for forgiveness. Man may or may not choose to forgive, but God ALWAYS forgives, when we sincerely confess our sins, ask for His forgiveness, and repent - turn away from doing those things we know we're not supposed to do.  Just as the writer of I Kings prayed, asking God to forgive the children of Isreal when the come to themselves, Christ explains this same principal in the well known parable of the "prodigal son": 

Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”’ (Luke 15:11-19)

We all know ... for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,... (Romans 3:23); But we also need to believe and accept that ...if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.  And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (I John 2:1-2) Let today be the day we all "come to ourselves" and then come to Jesus, just as you are!  Don't wait because it will never be the right time and we'll never be good enough, but waiting could mean it will be too late!