CHAPTER 10 REPENTANCE AND RETURNING TO GOD
AND FORGIVENESS

Trust in the Lord
New courage to those with repentant hearts
Seek the Lord
Look to the Lord for his help
Come and return to God
Fear God, our Maker
Being made clean

Trust in the Lord
JEREMIAH 17:5-14
The Lord says: Cursed is the man who puts his trust in mortal man (who is subject to death) and turns his heart away from God. He is like a stunted shrub in the desert, with no hope for the future; he lives on the salt-encrusted plains in the barren wilderness; good times pass him by forever.
But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and has made the Lord his hope and confidence. He is like a tree planted along a river bank, with its roots reaching deep into the water – a tree not bothered by the heat nor worried by long months of drought (a long dry period of weather). Its leaves stay green and it goes right on producing all its luscious fruit.
The heart (and mind; a person’s real disposition) is the most deceitful (misleading and cheating) thing there is, and desperately (dangerously) wicked (and evil and morally wrong and not correct). No one can really know how bad it is! Only the Lord knows! He searches all hearts and examines deepest motives so he can give to each person his (or her) right reward, according to his (or her) deeds – how he (or she) has lived.
Like a bird that fills her nest with young she has not hatched and which will soon desert her and fly away, so is the man who gets his wealth by unjust means. Sooner or later he will lose his riches and at the end of his life become a poor old fool.
But our refuge is your throne, eternal, high and glorious. O Lord, the Hope of Israel, all who turn away from you shall be disgraced and shamed; they are registered for earth and not for glory, for they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living waters. Lord, you alone can heal me, you alone can save (me), and my praises are for you alone.

New courage to those with repentant hearts
ISAIAH 57:15-21
The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: I live in that high and holy place where those with contrite, humble spirits dwell; and I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts. For I will not fight against you forever, nor always show my wrath (my anger); if I did, all mankind would perish – the very souls I have made.
I was angry and smote (that is attacked) these greedy men. But they went right on sinning (disobeying the Laws of God), doing everything their evil hearts desired. I have seen what they do, but I will heal them anyway! I will lead them and comfort them, helping them to mourn and to confess their sins. Peace, peace to them, both near and far, for I will heal them all. But those who still reject me are like the restless sea, which is never still, but always churns up mire (mud) and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for them!

Seek the Lord
ISAIAH 55:6-13
Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call upon him now while he is near. Let men cast off their wicked deeds; let them banish (shut out) from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! Let them turn to the Lord that he may have mercy upon them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon! This plan of mine is not what you would work out, neither are my thoughts the same as yours! For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours.
As the rain and snow come down from heaven and stay upon the ground to water the earth, and cause the grain to grow and to produce seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry, so also is my Word. I send it out and it always produces fruit. It shall accomplish all I want it to, and prosper everywhere I send it. You will live in joy and peace. The mountains and hills, the trees of the field – all the world around you – will rejoice. Where once were thorns, fir trees will grow; where briars grew, the myrtle trees will sprout up. This miracle will make the Lord’s name very great and be an everlasting sign [of God’s power and love].

Look to the Lord for his help
MICAH 7:7-10
As for me, I look to the Lord for his help; I wait for God to save me; he will hear me. Do not rejoice against me, O my enemy, for though I fall, I will rise again! When I sit in darkness, the Lord himself will be my Light. I will be patient while the Lord punishes me, for I have sinned against him; (I have disobeyed his laws) then he will defend me from my enemies, and punish them for all the evil they have done to me. God will bring me out of my darkness into the light, and I will see his goodness. Then my enemy will see that God is for me, and be ashamed for taunting (for mocking) me, “Where is that God of yours?” Now with my own eyes I see them trampled (crushed) down like mud in the street.

Come and return to God
JEREMIAH 10:23-24
O Lord, I know it is not in the power of man to map his life and plan his course – so you correct me, Lord; but please be gentle. Don’t do it in your anger, for I would die.
ISAIAH 64:5
(adapted)
God welcomes those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways.
JOEL 2:32
Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
ISAIAH 8:17
I will wait for the Lord to help us, though he is hiding now. My only hope is in him.
ISAIAH 66:2
(adapted)
God looks with pity upon me, for I am a person who has a humble (gentle) and contrite (sorrowful) heart (and disposition), and I tremble at God’s Word.
ISAIAH 17:10
(adapted)
I have turned to God who can save me – the Rock who can hide me.
ISAIAH 31:6
(adapted)
I come and return to God.
JEREMIAH 4:1-2
(adapted)
I truly return to the Lord and absolutely discard my idols (lifeless statues of gods used as objects for worship) and I swear by God alone, the living God, and I begin to live a good, honest and clean life, then I will be a testimony (an affirmation) to the nations of the world and they will come to God and glorify (and honor) his name.
ISAIAH 1:27
(adapted)
I return to the Lord; I am just and good; I shall be redeemed.
ISAIAH 30:15
(adapted)
I return to the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel and wait for him and I am saved; in quietness and confidence is my strength.
ISAIAH 30:18
(adapted)
I come to the Lord; he shows me his love; he has conquered me to bless me (and to make me happy), just as he said. For the Lord is faithful to his promises. Blessed (and made happy) are all those who wait for him to help them.
HOSEA 12:6
(adapted)
I come back to God. I live by the principles of love and justice (warm affection, friendship and fair dealing), and I always expect much from him, who is my God.
HOSEA 7:16
(adapted)
I look to heaven, to the Most High God.
ISAIAH 1:15
(adapted)
When I pray with my hands stretched out to heaven, the Lord looks and listens.
ISAIAH 1:4
(adapted)
I face the Lord, I admire (and highly respect) the Holy One of Israel, and receive his help and assistance.
AMOS 5:8-9
(adapted)
I seek him who created the Seven Stars and the constellation of Orion, who turns darkness into morning, and day into night, who calls forth the water from the ocean and pours it out as rain upon the land. The Lord, Jehovah, is his name. With blinding speed and violence he brings destruction on the strong, breaking all defenses.

Fear God, our Maker
ISAIAH 51:13
(adapted)
I fear God my Maker – I remember him, the one who spread the stars throughout the skies and made the earth.
ISAIAH 8:13-15
(adapted)
I don’t fear anything except the Lord of the armies of heaven! As I fear him, I need fear nothing else. The Lord is my safety and the Rock of my Salvation (my Deliverance and Security and Safety).
JEREMIAH 5:21-22
(adapted)
I have eyes that see and ears that hear and I have absolute respect for God. I tremble in the presence of God. He set the shorelines of the world by perpetual decrees, so that the oceans, though they toss and roar, can never pass those bounds. God is a God to be feared and worshipped (to be liked, loved, respected, honored and obeyed).
ISAIAH 1:12-13
(adapted)
I am sorry for my sins (my thinking, speaking and acting against the laws of God).
EZELIEL 44:7
(adapted)
…the uncircumcised (the heathen) – those who have no heart for God (those who have no feeling, impulse, inclination, affection and desire for God).
JEREMIAH 9:25-26
(adapted)
I circumcise (purify) my heart (my real disposition) by loving the Lord.
ZEPHANIAH 3:1-2
(adapted)
I listen to the voice of God. I listen to what I am told; I accept all correction. I trust the Lord; I seek for God.
JEREMIAH 4:3-4
(adapted)
I plough up the hardness of my heart (my real disposition; my feelings, impulses, inclinations, affections and desires); otherwise the good seed will be wasted among the thorns. I cleanse my mind and heart, not just my body, or else God’s anger will burn me to a cinder because of all my sins (my thinking, speaking and acting against the laws of God). And no one will be able to put the fire out.

Being made clean
JEREMIAH 4:14
I cleanse my heart while there is time. I can yet be saved by casting out my evil thoughts.
ISAIAH 1:16-19
(adapted)
I wash myself and become clean. I stop doing wicked things: I leave my evil ways. I learn to do good, to be fair and to help the poor, the fatherless, and widows.
I come to the Lord and talk it over! No matter how deep the stain of my sins, the Lord can take it out and make me as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if I am stained as red as crimson, the Lord can make me white as wool! I let the Lord help me, I obey him and I am made rich by the Lord.
ISAIAH 3:10
(adapted)
What a reward the godly man (and woman) is going to get.
ISAIAH 43:25
(adapted)
God alone is he who blots away (who obliterates) our sins for his own sake and will never think of them again.
JONAH 3:10
When God saw that they had put a stop to their evil (and ungodly) ways, he abandoned his plan to destroy them, and didn’t carry it through.
JEREMIAH 5:1-3
(adapted)
I aim to be a fair and honest person. I tell the truth. I turn from my sins (and obey the laws of God).
JEREMIAH 4:22
(adapted)
I leave my foolishness and listen to God; I brighten up and gain understanding, I develop a talent for doing right.
ISAIAH 5:11
(adapted)
I don’t get up early in the morning to go on long drinking bouts that last till late at night. I am not a drunken layabout (doing little or no work).
HOSEA 14:2-3
(adapted)
“O Lord, take away our sins; be gracious to us and receive us, and we will offer you the sacrifice of praise. Another nation (Assyria) cannot save us, nor can our strength in battle; never again will we call the idols we have made ‘our gods’; for in you alone, O Lord, the fatherless find mercy.”
ISAIAH 33:24
(adapted)
The people of Israel will no longer say, “We are sick and helpless,” for the Lord will forgive (and pardon) them their sins (their disobedience) and bless them (and make them happy).
ISAIAH 6:7
(adapted)
I am now not guilty; my sins are all forgiven (my thoughts, speech and actions against the laws of God are pardoned).