Repentance
Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.” Mark 1:14-15
I have been guilty for many years of encouraging people at the end of our conferences to ask people to dedicate or rededicate their lives to the Lord. Some of you have been to a conference or listened to a preacher who has called the audience to this kind of decision.
But as I have been thinking this through, the Bible doesn’t call us to dedicate or rededicate our lives to Him. He calls us to repentance – not a word that often enters on our radar screen.
Dr. Henry Blackaby writes in his daily devotional, Experiencing God – The Devotional (Broadman & Holman):
Repentance is one of the most positive of all words. John the Baptist centered his preaching on repentance (Matthew 3:2, Mark 1:4, Luke 3:3). Jesus also preached repentance, commanding His disciples to do likewise (Mark 1:14-15, Luke 24:7). The angel predicted that the Messiah would save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). The requirement for this salvation would be repentance.
To repent means to stop going one direction, to turn around completely, and go the opposite way.
Repentance involves a dramatic and decisive change of course. God urges us to repent when the path we are taking leads to destruction. Repentance will save us from disastrous consequences! What a wonderful word! How comforting that the Creator loves us enough to warn us of impending danger!
Our problem is that we think of repentance as something negative. When we recognize our sin, we prefer to “rededicate” our lives to God. We may even tell others we have resolved to be more faithful to God than we were before we failed Him.
Yet the Bible doesn’t speak of rededicating oneself. It speaks of repentance! Repentance indicates a decisive change, not merely a wishful resolution. We have not repented if we continue in our sin!
Repentance involves a radical change of the heart and mind in which we agree with God’s evaluation of our sin and then take specific action to align ourselves with His will. A desire to change is not repentance. Repentance is always an active response to God’s Word. The evidence of repentance is not words of resolve, but a changed life!
Are you struggling with an area of sin in your life? Maybe a struggle for years? Well the answer might be more simpler than we want to imagine. Repentance may be the missing key to your walking in victory! – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick
Compass Pointers: To me the second coming is the perpetual light in the path which makes the present bearable. I never lay my head on my pillow without thinking that: maybe before the morning breaks the final morning may have dawned. I never begin my work without thinking perhaps he may interrupt my work and begin his own. G. Campbell Morgan
Anchored to the Rock: What is the life of a Christian but a life of prayer? David Brown
No comments:
Post a Comment