There’s a blessing when you return to the LORD your God.

Return To The Lord

 

Micah 7:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

 

He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Joel 2:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

 

And rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

Hosea 14:2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

 

Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips.

Jeremiah 24:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

 

I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.

Hebrews 13:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

 

Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Matthew 6:14-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

 

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Hosea 14:1-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

 

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily; he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon; ...

Psalm 69:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes

 

I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving.

Numbers 23:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

 

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

Revelation 22:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

1 John 4:16-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

1 Peter 5:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

James 5:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

Hebrews 10:18-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ...

Hebrews 9:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Titus 2:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

2 Corinthians 6:1-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ...

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Romans 14:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 13:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

Romans 10:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”

Romans 8:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Acts 2:1-47 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ...

John 6:37 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.

John 4:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ...

John 3:16-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Luke 14:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

“When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him,

Mark 11:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Matthew 12:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory;

Matthew 11:28-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 5:44-48 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:23-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison.

Zechariah 3:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.”

Joel 3:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

Joel 2:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.

Joel 2:12-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. ...

Joel 1:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.

Hosea 14:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.

Hosea 14:2-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”

Hosea 13:1-16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel, but he incurred guilt through Baal and died. And now they sin more and more, and make for themselves metal images, idols skillfully made of their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of them, “Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!” Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes early away, like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window. But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; ...

Hosea 11:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

Hosea 6:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hosea 5:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.

Ezekiel 18:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

“But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

Isaiah 55:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

Isaiah 55:1-12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. ...

Isaiah 53:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

Isaiah 44:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Psalm 103:2-3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,

Psalm 103:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

Of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. ...

Psalm 52:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.

Psalm 34:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Exodus 34:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

 

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,