A RETURNING SPIRIT

One of the most important attitudes we can have in our life is a "returning spirit." Jeremiah 5:3 tells us about the children of Israel who "refused to return" which invoked the judgment of God.
           
I want to have a "returning spirit" in my heart, don’t you? Returning back to God when I grieve the Holy Spirit, returning back to God's plumbline of truth when I get into deception, and returning back to a soft and tender spirit when my heart becomes hard.
         
Not only should I have a "returning spirit" toward the Lord, but also toward my husband--returning to a soft a sweet spirit when I become haughty and independent and returning to a submissive spirit when I would rather do my own thing. One of the secrets of a harmonious marriage is to keep a "returning spirit."
         
 
"The spirit of returning" is the greatest need of the hour--returning to our first love, returning back to God's absolute truth and principles, returning back to the radical lifestyle of the early church, and turning away from our mediocre, middle-of-the-road, complacent, flesh-pampering, and world-loving spirit.
         
God leaves us with an amazing promise in the last verse of the Old Testament, "He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse" (Malachi 4:6).
 
The Hebrew word for “turn” is “shuv” and is translated "turn" 80 times and "return" 491 times. God's greatest longing is for a returning back to His heart for family, to see children as He sees them, and to embrace into our families the children He plans for us.
 
Let’s keep returning more and more to God’s ways,

Nancy Campbell