Turning and Returning

Turning is a metaphor used commonly throughout the scriptures describing the nature of our relationship with the Lord. There are numerous accounts of the wicked turning from the Lord to their wickedness and reaping the consequences of their choices. Just as many are the accounts of the righteous repenting and returning or turning back unto the Lord and subsequently gaining his favor once more. Most of us, I am sure, have found that it is not too difficult to turn away from the Lord as we embrace worldliness. More difficult, we have found, is turning back to the Lord in humility that through his patient love we might be healed and changed in our natures. I want to share a handful of scriptures that have impressed me over the years that use the metaphor of turning.

Isaiah explained to the children of Israel that God was perfectly capable of saving them, but they had chosen to reject his hand decreed, “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear (Isaiah 59:2). Notice how the sins of the people have caused the Lord’s face to be hidden, as if he has turned his back on them. Note that he has not left them, but rather, being unable to look upon sin with the least degree of allowance has turned away (D&C 1:31). I have found time and again this to be true in my own life… that when, in my own pride, I rejected the Lord and his help, He seemed distant and unreachable, but upon repentance he was right there again, as if he had never left. The words of Ezekiel penetrated my heart when he urged, “Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions… and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die…? For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye (Ezekiel 18: 30-32). There are few examples so beautiful in the old testament that show the Lord’s genuine pleading concern as Ezekiel 18. He pleads with us to turn away from transgression and make a new heart and new spirit. This is the character change that can and must take place in us that we might gain favor with God. Jesus Christ clearly demonstrated his desire to help and heal us saying to the people of Nephi “will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you? (3 Nephi 9:13). If we would but return (repent) he would heal us. Then last of all he spoke through Malachi calling the people once again to repentance and making one final promise, “Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts (Malachi 3:7). What more could we ask for? To gain the Lord’s favor is worth all costs, for it brings ultimately a joint inheritance of all that the Father hath (John 16: 15, Rom. 8: 17). Agency requires that we make the choice, for God has already chosen that if we would return unto Him, then He would return unto us… and heal us.

Whatever our relationship with the Lord may be, I pray that we may strengthen one another, that as we turn from the Lord in weakness, that we may return unto him in humility and once again find favor with him. I am confident He waits anxiously to heal.