V3: God responds to our returning. When we return, God returns. Draw near to God and God will draw near to you, as James says.
But how do we return? By understanding the death of Jesus Christ for our sins:
24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. 25 For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:24-25 ESV)
When we behold the love of Jesus Christ for our sins, that's we return. When we see how much Jesus loves us, that He sacrificed His life for us, we don't live our life however we want. No, we live for Him. The love of Christ controls us to love and live for Him, who loved us and died for us:
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this:that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised
(2 Corinthians 5:14-15 ESV)
V4: To return to God is to return from our evil ways and deeds. It is to walk in good ways and to do good deeds. Goodness accords with returning to the Father. Those who return to God cannot but do that which is good and loving - because they see the love of the Father.
V6: The human prophets do not live on forever. But their word lives on forever because they are God's Words. Just as Abel "through his faith, though he died, he still speaks" (Hebrews 11:4 ESV). Indeed, "8 The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever" (Isaiah 40:8 HCSB).
What is the only way that we can live on forever? When we are born again by God's Word, live by God's Word and preach God's Word: "23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God" (1 Peter 1:23 ESV).
They repented. It is the enduring Word of the Gospel that makes people repent - return. It is the preached Word of Jesus Christ and His cross that makes people return from evil deeds to good deeds.
Prayer: Father God, may your people return to you. May we return from evil deeds to good deeds. May we return from hatred to love. How may we do that, Lord? Only through the enduring Word: the enduring Word of the Gospel of Thine love towards us. Lord, you loved us, and your Son went to hell for us on the cross. Lord, when we behold that love, how can we not return? How can we not live under the reign of Thine love? Lord, help us, to return to You and Your Love, we pray in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen.
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