Mark 1:14-15 (NIV) 14After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
Romans 7:21-25 (NIV) 21So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
The meaning of the word repent implies that there is something we need to run from and something we need to run toward, and there is urgency in the word that the phrase “make a run for it” catches. We are to run from the wretchedness hidden in the heart of the most respectable person and run to the goodness of God. Repentance brings us into an awareness of God’s grace. Our life may be all wrong around the edges, but at the center, where only God knows us, we are loved, held, led, cared for and destined for the future He has for every child He claims as His. Repentance brings us into the presence of God, where we not only sample the goodness of God, we also discover something of the good work He is going to do in us, changing our life, enlightening our minds, molding our wills, and shaping our future.
How then do we repent? Obviously repentance is more than saying “I am sorry.” It is being genuinely sorry for our faults and failures toward God and toward one another. Part of repentance is a mystery. There are no buttons we can push to make it happen. There is no one plan to follow that guarantees repentance. Some are brought to repentance by the events of their life, both good and bad. Some are brought to repentance through a relationship to a special person or persons. Some are brought to repentance because one day the Gospel simply hits home.
We can cultivate a lifestyle that makes us ready for repentance. We can share with God our known failures, receive His forgiveness, and His friendship. We can give the day to Him in the morning and give thanks to Him at night. Perhaps the most important thing we can do is to spend some time each day to turn our attention away from ourselves, away from all the cares and concerns that normally fill our mind and hearts, and focus our attention purely on God, allowing God to give Himself to us, and believing He is doing that, regardless of what we feel at the moment. We can be ready so that when the moment comes we can pour out life in repentance even as He has poured out His life in us.
Preached 1989
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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