The problem with this topic is that when we talk about repentance, we almost automatically link it with judgement and condemnation. It signals the message that we have done something wrong for which we are now being reprimanded and to be honest, people don't like that. We want to hear love and mercy and grace and all the up-lifting 'feel-good' messages from God. Life is tough enough and we are being judged enough by everyone around, aren't we?
Yet, the truth is that to reap the peace and joy and life and love and all the other good blessings mentioned in the Bible, we need to go through a specific door...Jesus Christ. And if we can play around with this imagery, there is a doormat on which we need to wipe our feet as we enter through the 'Door' and that doormat is called 'repentance'.
"True repentance involves a change of mind. The mind that was hostile to God and His commands is now changed into a position of agreement with God...thus true repentance...causes a turning away from sin and an earnest desire to please God and obey His commands."
(From Bride Adorned)
Dear friend, as the beloved of Christ, we have received from Him the Holy Spirit to help us grow into the bride of Revelation 19 - a bride who is ready to meet her Groom. All the fullness of Christ, every spiritual blessing in Christ are bestowed on us...we are crowned with glory and beauty.
But here is the key...all these beautiful promises and blessings are IN Christ. And to be in Christ means that we have come to a place where we willingly abandon our own ways for His ways, our own thinking for His thoughts and therefore we willingly submit to the pruning of the Holy Spirit, to His guidelines.
This is not easy...actually this is something we can and will only do when we have come to a position of agreement with God and His commands and repentance of our own ways. Repentance says...Lord, no more my will but Yours because Your will is good and right. This is a beautiful thing. It is a sweet fragrance to our God. It humbles us, the clay, to be formed by the hand of the Potter into something of the utmost beauty!
Last year December, my chef of twelve years passed away. Still grieving his death, I have been frantically looking for a new chef these past weeks in time for our first guest to arrive in camp this year. No which way I turned, looking for a new chef, proofed to be successful... until the very last minute when I met up with a lady who was available. Her name...Repent.
From scratch I new (but half ignored) that God was telling me something but, every time I spoke to her, I heard God say, "Repent". During this time I was also reading from the book of Job and because I found it quite hard to understand at times, I also read some commentaries on Job. Well, when the commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown mentioned that Job also comes from an Arabic word meaning 'repentance', I was wide awake. I took the time to pray to God and ask Him in earnest what it was that He wanted me to repent from. When the revelation came, I was in tears and prostrated myself before Him. It was painful to acknowledge the sin God was pointing out to me, but God did not want to judge or condemn me, He wanted to purify, sanctify and redeem me from this thing.
I cannot tell you how relieved and 'light' I felt when God and I had dealt with this thing and I have repented of it and asked His help to renounce and fight it in my life. I not only felt clean, I felt like a bride, loved and in love with the most awesome Grooms of all.
This is the beauty of repentance.
What is God asking you to repent from today?
May each one of us be always willing to repent before our God and Groom and be made a most beautiful bride in His sight!
Until next week, God bless
Lize
Thank you SO much for not writing warm and fuzzy fluff. My heart is down on the bottom of the floor lately. It's so heavy with grieve over the state of the church and the direction it's heading. The truth was so beautifully written here. And just that it was the truth ministered to me today. I'm typing this with tears rolling down my cheeks- By obeying God's call to something less then fuzzy you have greatly encouraged and ministered to me today. Blessings to you.
ReplyDeleteDear Ren, God gave us the promise of a church which He would build and sustain and present to Himself as a purified and sanctified bride. It doesn't matter how many false teachings the enemy sends in, God will also send out His Word and we know that His Word will not return to Him empty but will accomplish that which He intended. That is our hope so that we do not grow tired of doing good (teaching and bringing His Word to people) no matter how bleak it all looks. And at the same time we ourselves continue to be soft clay in His hands. He is doing a beautiful thing. I share your grieve when I look at people's lives today...but it is not a despairing grieve...it is a grieve that compels us to share with them the Truth that will bring them everlasting life. I thank God for workers such as yourself that has His compassion in your heart for the people He so loves! On another note I might add that you might enjoy my book in which I also endeavored to speak truth and not fluff :-). God bless you richly and strengthen you in the important work you do.
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