Return!

There was an entire day in DC recently devoted to calling America to “return” to the Lord. That was even the title given to the event.

And, election year politics aside, it was good to see almost 200,000 people respond. We called for a morning devoted to fasting, prayer and repentance at Westgate Chapel that same Saturday morning and had over 300 of our congregation pray 3 hours of genuine non-stop prayers of repentance for personal sin, corporate and national sin.

America has abandoned the Lord and we are paying the price.

Many of our cities are literal war zones.

Homelessness and drug addiction is a blight on much of the nation with no signs of improvement.

Our culture is in serious moral decline and more divided than any time in the last 100 years.

Families are disintegrating and many public school systems have become little more than centers of social re-engineering.

And in all of this the Church has become less and less salt and light. We look and sound more like the culture than an antidote for its demise.

We are this nation’s only hope IF we are the first to return to the Lord.

I was reading 2 Chronicles 30 this morning.

Israel (the northern tribes) had already been taken captive by Assyria and very few of God’s people even remained in the land because they had refused the prophets and would not return to the Lord when He called.

All that was left was Judah, and parts of Ephraim and Manasseh.

But, King Hezekiah sent out an urgent letter to the whole nation in recorded in verses 6-9…and the word “RETURN” shows up 5 times in that short space.

It is a word you’ll find all through the Minor Prophets.

RETURN!

It’s the heart of God that we turn away from our sin and cold-hearted indifference to the chaos in our world.

It is the heart of God that we recapture the love for God that His people have abandoned…and return to a white hot passion for His presence and power at work in our lives and ministries.

It is time…for God’s people to RETURN to Him and come with broken hearts, in prayer and fasting, to repent of our sin and RETURN to Him.

It is His heart, and if we will make the move (James 4:8), He will provide the Spirit and empower our RETURN to Him!