When God Relents

Jeremiah 25 & 26

(26:3) "Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from their evil ways. Then I will relent and not inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done."

(13) "Now reform your ways and your actions and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring the disaster He has pronounced against you.

(18-19) Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. ... Did not Hezekiah fear the Lord and seek His favor? And did not the Lord relent, so that He did not bring the disaster He pronounced against them? We are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves!

(25:6-7) "Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse My anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you."
"But you did not listen to Me," declares the Lord, "and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves."

We can never blame God for the troubles and depressions we experience as a Nation. He has told us how He has designed this world to work, and when we decide that we know better, and turn our backs on our Maker and His ways, we bring all these disasters on ourselves. 

Wake up, people of God! This applies to any Nation whose people each turns away from their evil ways and seeks the Lord and His ways, Listen! God has planned terrible disasters for us, but He will relent when we turn toward Him. We don't have to be Israel or Judah: even Nineveh, that pagan, wicked, cruel, violent nation, turned from their evil deeds toward the Lord at Jonah's preaching, and God relented, for a generation. It made Jonah angry, too, he knew they deserved the destruction.

And God will relent from inflicting on us the disasters He has planned for all those who turn from His good ways, when each of us examines our own hearts and turns around from the sin that so easily besets us, confess and forsake, and turn to our Almighty Father Who loves us and has already met all our needs. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!