Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy. Proverbs 28:13
I Want Off…
How much is too much…
How far is too far…
How low is too low…
How exhausted is too exhausted…
What will it take to bring you to the point of wanting to change your behavior to have a different life? We want a different life but often we do not want to change our behavior. For a Christian, repentance only comes when we get to that place where we know we do not want to go on living the same way anymore.
When we become Christians, we admit that we are sinners and repent – turning away from sin and towards God. We believe Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins. We repent and turn to God, accepting the gift of salvation that Jesus’ blood bought for us and the gift of eternal life. As we walk the path of a disciple of Christ, we still wrestle with our flesh and sometimes fail. Other times we keep doing some “small” sins that are “not that bad.” We know we should quit but we don’t want to. We may wrestle with some strongholds that we try to overcome but just continue to fail because maybe we are not trying hard enough. We know better but we can allow ourselves to do it anyway. This is not true repentance. True repentance is always followed by true obedience. True repentance results in a marked change in our behavior
Repentance is turning away from all sin -- sins of thought, word, and deed, secret sins and known sins. When we truly repent, we turn from all sin - even the ones we don’t want to let go of. We understand the word repentance as confessing our sin and changing our ways. In our minds repentance is all about changing behavior. Repentance is not just regret. Repentance is more than feeling sorry. It means following through on that conviction and turning around — changing your mind and your heart so that you are no longer walking in sin.
True repentance is about modifying behavior, but the kind of repentance that works changes more than just behavior. It is a radical change in one's attitude toward sin and God. It implies a conscious, moral separation, and a personal decision to forsake sin and to enter into fellowship with God. Real repentance is more than changing my behavior out of fear of hurting others or fear of being caught. It is changing my behavior because now I see things differently. It is ceasing to think like the world and beginning to see things with our new mind in Christ. It is where truth meets sin.
Sunday Pastor Jim spoke about the hamster wheel we are on when we are sinning, asking for forgiveness, sinning, asking for forgiveness, again sinning and then asking for forgiveness. There is no true repentance because there is no radically turning away from sin and towards God. When we stay on the hamster wheel, we exhaust ourselves. We continue to chase and pursue in a never-ending cycle. All we are chasing and pursuing will never fill the void. So we run again and again and again because we still are not fulfilled. All the things we chase and pursue that are not God will disappoint us over and over. God is the only thing thing that will ever fill the void in our hearts. When we do repent of a sin we have been struggling with, we must replace it with something and God is that something. If we don't replace those habits with something else we will eventually pursue them again. It is a good idea to have a mentor or to be discipled by a more mature Christian. Pray for God's guidance and provision in times of temptation and stay away from anything or anyone that you know could be a trigger for you.
There is nothing on this earth that can give us what we need. Only God can do that and it is not a one-time experience. Unlike the earthly idols we chase that quickly leave us emptier than before, He continues to give us everything we need into eternity. When we are in relationship with God, being transformed, with the Spirit living in us, we step where the Spirit steps. When we finally get off the hamster wheel for good and we step where the Spirit steps, we are on a different path, going in a different direction towards life and away from death. It is only His power in us that gets us off of the hamster wheel and into abundant life in Him.
How about you? Do you want off the hamster wheel? We have to get to that one place – where we no longer want to pursue the wrong thing, where we
