December 10 – Fallen or Backsliding? Jesus, Restore Us!

Hope for Today: A Daily Devotion from Reasons for Hope*Jesus

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“Tell His disciples —  and Peter —  that He is going before you into Galilee.” Mark 16:7

“If anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 1 John 2:1-2

“Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.” Hebrews 12:1

Have you been slack, unfaithful, and fallen away? You are not to make light of it: lamentations become you; and you ought to humble yourself deeply before God. But why will you continue in your fallen condition any longer? From the depths of your humiliation and sorrow, call upon the Redeemer. He is ready to forgive you, as He forgave Peter; “having received gifts … from the rebellious.”

Delay not to lay hold of your ransom, which is greater than all the sins in the world. Be not discouraged, nor listen to those suggestions which would urge you either to cherish despondency or to seek relief in the pleasures of the world. The Lord even now reaches forth His hands to you anew by this very word. Come, lift yourself up at it, and be careful for the time to come, to be so much more cautious and humble, and especially to treat others with greater tenderness and affection. Gracious Savior, speak to the heart of every fallen Peter and bring him back! O send one of Your loving messages to every backsliding child, and thus restore him to Yourself!

Devotion by Karl Heinrich von Bogatzky (1690—1774)