God’s Time-Out

by Heather Tietz

In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion. Don’t let your hands be weak.” The LORD, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

Zephaniah 3:16-17

Are you in time-out?

God disciplines. The Israelites bore years of God’s reprimand at the hands of other nations. They sinned, God allowed them to be conquered, taken from the Promise Land, and enslaved. But God’s time-outs didn’t last forever. When the Israelites stopped worshipping idols, stopped dishonoring the poor and the righteous, stopped pagan practices, when they asked for God’s forgiveness, He gave them back their peace and their homes.

In Zephaniah 3 God is restoring to the His people what He has allowed them to lose. He comes to them with a heavenly hug, an “I love you still” song, after their long-awaited time-out.

How about you? Do you extend mercy to those that have wronged you? Have you forgotten them in time-out? Do they know you love them still?