Return to Me

Malachi 3:7 — “Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty.”

The One Thing that Doesn’t Change

Many changes have come to our world since October 7.  It’s been said that “The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. Change is the law of life…” One thing will not change: the Lord Almighty: 3:6 — “I the Lord do not change. I am All-powerful and I do not change.” If anyone changed it is us. God doesn’t just wink at our sins like a senile old grandfather who shakes his head in amusement when His grandchildren misbehave. God takes sin seriously! Do you?

Sin isn’t just a mistake; it is a serious affront to a holy God. Willful sin brings terrible consequences. “It will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay!” But because God is love, He sent Malachi to call His people back to himself.

How did His people get there? And why does God send his prophet Malachi in this last book of OT to give them such a wonderful promise? Over time, God’s people had drifted and departed from intimate fellowship with Him. As they moved farther and farther away, they turned to substitutes—behaviors that can control our lives if we let them! If I had to guess, I’d say money or material things and sensual pleasures would be at the top of the list!

Possible Substitutes

Material things: we’re all attracted to the things money can buy! They occupy much of our time and attention. We may not call it addiction, but for most of us, they are our ultimate concern. Jesus told the rich young ruler to go sell everything he had and give it away; then come follow me.

What Jesus asks of us is equally demanding: in Matthew 6:33 He urges His followers to  “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Use material things for Kingdom purposes. And what about…

Sensual pleasure: We’ve been marinating in the cultural hot tub for some time. It’s been scalding our souls. How did we get here? A thousand  little letdowns!

• An estimated 5.5+ million people in the U.S. used mind-altering drugs in the past year.
• Gluttonous consumption—most Americans are addicted to eating: more than two thirds of the population is overweight or obese.
• And what about what you’re watching! Between 5% to 8% of the adult American population are addicted to pornography. Over $3M is spent every second on internet porn!

Finding My Way Back

If we’re going to return, we must REPENT —truly turn from sin. Make a deliberate decision to leave sin behind! If you truly return to the Lord, you must eliminate all substitutes that do nothing but separate you from God.  Don’t just seek God on Sundays, then settle for empty substitutes for the other six days! We need God’s help to detach from substitutions and any other distractions.

We must “be careful what we worship…for what we worship we become!” Don’t “bow down and worship idols,” says the Lord. “Return to Me!” He is the LORD our God, and He demands exclusive love and devotion (Ex.20:5).  Don’t be confused! An idol is anything more important to you than God… anything that absorbs your heart and attention more than God… anything you seek to give you what only God can supply!

Almost anything can become a substitute! If we worship and serve it in place of God it likely controls our lives. It may not necessarily be wrong, but if we make it the most important thing in life, it quickly becomes a substitute for God and the things of God. Have you allowed anything to take God’s rightful place in your life? Satan always offer substitutions, but we must refuse them.

Tempting Substitutions

What substitutions have you been tempted to accept? We need God’s help to know. Consider the possibilities:

• Self — Do you deny self first and put others first.
• Money — The lure of things can be strong. Isa. 55:2 says “…Let your soul delight in abundance.” That can be both material and spiritual. Jesus didn’t say we can’t be wealthy. He said, “You cannot serve both God and wealth.”
• Good things — can’t I just concentrate on being a good person? The Bible says, “none of us are good…” (Rom. 3:10-11). Any good things we do will be like a bunch of filthy rags to God (Isa. 64:6). No amount of good works can ever get us to heaven (Eph. 2:8-9), but people bound for heaven will naturally do good works. The difference is that our good deeds are not a substitute for Christ, but a service for Christ.

To people who had tried to fill their souls with all other sorts of things, just like we do, God issues a final appeal. So final, in fact that He doesn’t speak again for 400 years! “…If you return to me, I will return to you.”

God doesn’t make promises that He does not intend to keep! Return to me and I will return to you! Their response was a sarcastic series of questions. It’s not wrong to question God—Job certainly did! What matters is how we do it. Bringing our questions and concerns to God is not wrong if we’re respectful and do so with a humble attitude of faith.

Questions Not Sarcasm

God invites your questions not your sarcasm. You don’t need to hide them or pretend you don’t have them. So when God said, “Return to me…” they asked, “How are we to return?” Something in me wants Malachi to put words in the Lord’s mouth… words like “If you didn’t want to know, then why did you ask? Don’t ask if you don’t expect an honest answer! But since you asked, God says, “I will tell you very plainly!

God has a question of His own: 3:9 — “Will a mere mortal rob God?” Now, either they wanted clarification or they didn’t understand the question. Perhaps they didn’t understand. So each time God said, “This is your problem,” instead of making concessions or recalibrating their obedience, they asked a sarcastic counter-question.

It feels like they meant, “We really don’t want an answer or we don’t want to discuss this or they were uncomfortable with their answer. Even when God tells them, “You have spoken arrogantly against me” (3:12), they counter, “What have we said against you?”

God knows things we don’t know and sees things we cannot see. That’s why Paul told the Corinthians,“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless you fail the test” (2 Cor. 13:5).

What is the True You?

Psychologists talk about the JOHARI Window. It is made up of four quadrants: ARENA (those things you know about you & others know about you—your public persona); BLIND-SPOT (those things others know about you but you don’t know about you; FAÇADE (those things you know about you but others don’t know about you—where you hide who you really are); and UNKNOWN (those things you don’t know about you and others don’t know about you). None is so blind as s/he who will not see.

I truly want to know what God knows but I just can’t seem to see. It’s hard to see our blindspots and the unknown! If you approach God humbly with your questions, a broken heart and contrite spirit (Ps. 51:17), He may confront you with some uncomfortable questions. How you respond is the key to whether you grow in grace and knowledge of the things of God. What if the Holy Spirit convicts me? Repent! What if He shows me a fault I could not see? Thank Him and Obey!

If you find yourself out of sorts with the standards of the Bible, it’s time to come humbly to Jesus and seek His forgiveness and help to live with a clear conscience. God uses conscience to warn us of danger. He speaks to us when something is not right in our lives…especially things that we know dishonor Christ.

Service Engine Soon

At times He speaks to me in images. It’s like the incessant light that comes on, on your dashboard saying SERVICE ENGINE SOON! You can’t ignore it or think it doesn’t matter. Our conscience is like that. It’s God’s way of warning us that we are straying into dangerous territory. If you already have, you need to stop, face your sin, and put it right, never to touch it again!

This is what’s happening in Malachi 3. God says, “You’re robbing me!” It may not be tithing, but whatever it is, it is a hindrance to you and you need to bring yourself into alignment with Scripture and God’s will and plan. The path of Jesus is narrow path (Matt. 7:13-14). The narrow gate is a personal relationship with God. It leads to life!

If you return to God He will return to you! It’s a narrow gate and only a few find it. Malachi 7:16 says some did hear and talked it over with their comrades “and the Lord listened and heard.” And He started taking names.  You see, He has a scroll or a book and He’s keeping a record.

When the Holy Spirit puts His finger on a specific sin we have committed,  own it; then confess it. In contrast, the accusations of Satan are vague and demoralizing. Satan accuses. Holy Spirit convicts. There’s a difference. If God is talking to you about things you really don’t want to talk about, remember it’s for your good. The Spirit says NOW…satan says MAYBE LATER! You have plenty of time to fix this before you die!

Satan tempts (to make us weaker), but God’s goal is to test (to make us stronger) and oftentimes we are tested by God permitting Satan to tempt us.
What is that thing the Holy Spirit has been trying to get your attention about for some time? If you’ve slowly drifted away. It’s time to come back.
What do I mean?

Bring you heart and life into alignment with what the Bible says! Holy Spirit convicts when He sees a behavior that goes against a Biblical teaching, a moral standard, or Christ-like characteristic that we have chosen not to uphold. He’s calling out, “Return to me and I will return to you!”

My new car is equipped with  an amazing  warning system.  Change lanes without a signal  and it beeps. Get too close the line on either side and it nudges you back into the center of the lane.  I can press a button and the car drives itself for a time but then warns me to put hands back on the steering wheel.  Our built-in sin-alarm system is like that.  If it goes off as  a guilty conscience, what will you do? Embrace conviction or ignore it? Return and repent?

We should thank God for showing us where we fall short. Don’t ignore conviction,  or make excuses–own it! “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it,” and missing the joy that comes when your belief and practice are in sync with the Word and will of God!

As far as I can tell, only a few people responded. So few in fact that Mal. 3:16 says God wrote the names of those who responded in “a scroll of remembrance.” What more could He say? Nothing more is said for 400 years. What more can He say when you don’t do what He’s already said?

If we ignore God’s correction, not only are we choosing disobedience, we are missing an opportunity to turn to God and grow in our faith. Admittedly, God’s questions can make us uncomfortable. It’s not always easy, but the result is always worth it.

Let me encourage you to love and obey God wholeheartedly! It’s the only way to find “true peace and joy in God.” Quit looking for things that satisfy in all the wrong places! Get your “peace, affirmation and joy from Almighty God—not from people or anything the world provides!” Return to Him and He will return to you! Strength, power, peace and self-confidence are ours for the taking.