DRAW CLOSE TO GOD -"Please Let Us Come Home"

"I PRAYED to Jehovah to please let me come home and to forgive me for hurting him."  So said one woman who had strayed far from her Christian upbringing.  Does your heart go out to her?  Do you wonder: "How does God feel about those who once served him?  Does he remember them?  Does he want them to "come home"? To answer those questions, let us examine words recorded by Jeremiah.  The answers will  not doubt warm your heart. -Read Jeremiah 31:18-20.

Consider the setting of Jeremiah's words. In 740 B.C.E., decades before Jeremiah's day, Jehovah permitted the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel to be taken captive by the Assyrians.   God allowed this calamity as discipline because his people had taken up sinning in gross ways, ignoring the repeated warnings of his prophets.  (2 Kings  17:5-18)  were the people softened by the hardships they experienced in exile, when they were separated from their God and far away from their homeland?  Did Jehovah forget all about them? Would he ever welcome them back home? 

Next time: "I Felt Regret"

From the Watchtower magazine, 2012