Today is the National Day of Repentance. Tomorrow will follow with the National Day of Prayer.
Somehow I never knew about it until today. I’m thankful that I did just learn about it, because yesterday my friend Preston Lund shared something on FACEBOOK. Here are his words:
“What happened to repentance? It’s like ‘as long as I am honest about my sin issue it’s ok.’ I don’t think that’s true. I think repentance somehow activates God’s grace, the imparting of His power to overcome. When we repent with genuine contrition and mourning over sin, then it’s ok because we are working on it; God is working on it. But if you don’t care, God knows and He isn’t going to violate your will and demean His relationship with you. Repent. Just start trying however you can think to start trying. Call someone. Pray this prayer. “I want to want to want to be like You Jesus.” Don’t be prideful, and don’t let my hypocrisy stop you if you see me fail. Just call out now and be saved, be renewed, restore incredibly important fellowship with the God who gave you life, TWICE!!!!”
He understands that repenting is a missing piece of the puzzle of our Christianity and our responsibility as a believer. We miss fellowship with our Lord when we continue in sin and we miss being an example to others who are questioning, wondering, and maybe considering following Christ. We’re not perfect, but when we repent we at least show that we are serious about our relationship with God.
Last week I blogged: The Standard of Measure by Which We Appear to be Holy. Preston’s words embellish what I wrote about. We think we can fool God and man. We think we can “get away” with things, but we can’t. My husband Joe and I often meet with many couples whose marriages are failing. Usually they’re failing because of an affair, but that isn’t the real reason. Peel back the layers on the onion and you’ll find a very pungent odor. Peel back the layers of marriage and you’ll find the root sin of pride along with its other manifestations: selfishness, wanting to be happy at the expense of anyone else, pornography, lust, sexual addiction, selfishness, gluttony, anger, greed, jealousy, envy…..and I’m sure you can add many more to the list.
Let’s take a minute and ask the Lord to reveal our sin to us. THEN, repent of it. REPENT means to turn away from it. Walk away. Run away. BOLT! Don’t look back and don’t do it again. Stop toying with it. Stop playing with it. Stop being tempted by it. STOP IT. Ask those you’ve hurt to forgive you, and make amends to make things right. God has the glue to hold friendships, marriages, and life together. But we have to make the effort to correct our wrongs.
THE KEY: Take the first step and just do it.