The God Who Turns
A Muddy Message for July 12, 2025
The longer I live, the more I realize how helpless I am, on my own, before a holy God. As my hair greys and my pace slows, I see how unable – and unwilling – I am to be saved from my hopeless condition without God’s help. Looking back, I can see that salvation is a constant “turning,” and that God does all of the turning, not me. God must make the first move, and then constantly move in me. I never will because I can’t.
If God doesn’t turn from His anger over my sin, I won’t turn away from the sin that kills me. If He doesn’t overwhelm the power sin has over me, I can’t escape being overwhelmed by sin. And if God won’t turn back from His fury over sin, I can’t return to Him in faith.
As the Red Sea’s waves overwhelmed and destroyed Pharoah’s threat to God’s people, so Christ’s blood overwhelms and destroys the sin that threatens me. Only His blood can flood my soul, forgive my sin, and fix the peace between my God and me. As Jesus’ blood makes a way for me to pass from death to life, it constantly floods and flushes sin from my soul along the way.
If the force of God’s forgiveness through Christs’ blood is greater than the fierceness of His fury, how powerful His blood must be! It’s because of this power I can sing with the hymn writer,
“Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow.
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus!”
If I would know the power of Jesus’ blood and be saved from eternal death, God must first turn back from His anger and then turn me back to Him. It is He, not I, who must make the first move if I’d ever be moved to have faith in Him. For forgiveness and faith are His gifts to give: they are things I could never choose, or would choose, even if I could.
I can’t fully understand that. It offends my pride and opposes my plan. But God’s plan to save me by His turning is perfect. For it’s His plan, not mine. After all, I can’t turn myself: I’m hopeless and helpless on my own. I need a Savior Who can turn me to Him and keep turning me back to Him.
And so, salvation is always and only about the God Who turns.
Communicating with the Commander:
Mighty and Merciful God, Thank You for turning Your anger away from me and for turning my heart to You. Thank You for constantly turning me back to You when I lose my way. Truly You are the Good Shepherd and give good gifts to Your children. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Amen.
[Key Verses: Psalm 80:14, 19, Ch. 85; Malachi 3:7; Romans 5:6-11; Also: Exodus 14:21-31, 33:19, 34:6-7; Joshua 23:11-13; Judges 2:19; 1 Kings 8:57-58; Psalm 3:8, 27:9, 32:1, 31:16, 33:13, 51:10, 62:1, 86:1, 90:13, 103:8 106:23; Proverbs 21:1; Isaiah 45:22, 63:15, 17; Jeremiah 24:7; Lamentations 3:50; Ezekiel 33:11, 36:26; Joel 2:12-14; Jonah 2:9 ; Zechariah 1:3; Matthew 5:3, 7:11; Luke 1:49; John 3:16, 6:37, 10:11; Acts 3:19, 15:16-18, 26:18; Romans 2:4, 3:10-12, 22-26, 9:13-16; 2 Corinthians 3:12-18; Galatians 4:9; Ephesians 1:4-5, 2:8-9; Hebrews 2:17, 9:22; James 4:8; 1 John 2:2, 4:10; Revelation 2:5, 16]
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thanks, brother; one of my favorite verses is Psalm 86:5, "For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in mercy to all who call upon You." So thankful!
This is a rich and humbling reminder, brother. At Mighty Oaks, where I serve, we work with veterans and first responders who often feel stuck—trying to muscle their way toward change without realizing, as you beautifully wrote, that only God can do the turning. Your words resonated deeply: we don’t make the first move—He does. It’s His mercy that floods our soul, His blood that overwhelms our sin, and His grace that keeps turning us back again and again. I’m grateful for your clear, gospel-saturated reflection. May we all continue to marvel at the God who turns us from death to life by the power of His Son.