February 1
Mornings With JesusTurn ye unto me. - Zechariah 1:3.
WE have turned away from God, and the language of the Church well becomes us: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” This being the case, religion must always commence with a turning unto the Lord. The very meaning of the word conversion is turning-from darkness to light-from sin to holiness -from the creature to God-as our end, our resting-place, and our portion.
But this will never take place without a deep conviction of the wrongness and danger of the state we are in, and of the course we are pursuing, as well as of the importance and necessity of our being united to the blessed God, with whom is the fountain of life, and who alone can “supply all our need from his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” This conviction the Holy Ghost produces, and under the influence of it the turning to God will be immediate and without delay. “I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.” It will he penitential; there will be a “sorrowing after a godly sort” that we have ever forsaken him. Under this conviction we shall turn to him fully, not merely forsaking some sins which are of easy abandonment, and performing some duties which are of easy execution, but the change will be entire.
We shall seek him with our whole heart; “for we cannot serve God and mammon.” David therefore says: “I esteem all thy commandments concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way.” This turning will be evangelical. There is no turning to God aright but through the Mediator- or it will be turning towards a “consuming fire,” for such God is out of Christ. It is only in the Son of his love that he is approachable. “I am the way,” says he. “No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”
It is thus we came to God at first. It is thus we must come to God always. It is only here that we can find boldness and access with confidence, and as we thus submit ourselves to the righteousness that is of God, we are accepted in the beloved, and have the testimony that we please God.