Return to God
by Ivan Ho 29 Dec 2025
The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.
Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD. Zechariah 1:2-4 KJV
The beginning of Zechariah’s prophetic words to God’s people wasn’t “Thus says the Lord, I am pleased with you”. It was quite the opposite, he said “The LORD hath been ‘sore displeased‘ (‘very angry‘ in other translation) with your fathers”. Why? Because they did not obey the words of the former prophets for them to TURN from their evil ways, and from their evil doings. What were their evil ways? Idolatry, the worship of other gods, and fornication (sexual immorality). Those were the commandments the people of God broke that kept them away from God.
The magic word Turn, or Return, or Repent, has been missing from the vocabulary in much of the preaching today.
“Turn ye unto Me, and I will turn unto you“, said the Lord. In other translation “Return to Me, and I will return to you“. God is saying to his children: “Turn back to me, and I will turn back to you”, meaning they have left God to pursue other false god and therefore need to repent, forsake their idol, and turn back to God with all their heart, all their soul and all their mind.
The prodigal son left his father’s house to pursue his own dreams. But when he had squandered everything he had, he came to his senses, repented and took steps to return to his father. When the father saw his son from a distance, he went to embrace him.
I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’
“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Luke 15:18-20
Return to God and He will return to you. Repentance is a decision and action on our part that can be seen by God, not just a feeling of remorse about our sins.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Revelation 2:4-5 KJV
God says “I have this against you, because you have left your first love.” He isn’t addressing the unbelievers who have never known God, but God’s people who have left their first love and become enticed by other gods in their lives.
God is not talking about “loosing that loving feeling” which some preachers are saying these days. He isn’t just talking about our hearts turning cold towards Him which is a byproduct of something else that has occurred in our lives. God says; “From where you have FALLEN, Repent, and do the first works…” God isn’t talking about falling in love and falling out of love, but rather, fallen, which is the fallen state of one’s relationship with God.
Simply loosing that loving feeling isn’t the root cause of people falling away from God. Repentance is something that one needs to do, rather than trying to get back some sort of feeling towards God (whatever that is), only to loose it again. Some people’s feelings are like Melbourne’s weather, which has four seasons between night and day. One day it’s hot, one day it’s cold, one day it’s yes, one day it’s no, depending on how one feels at any point in time.
When God says “Repent”, he’s not talking about mood swings.
To be continued… in the new year.