The older I get, the more I’m convinced that repentance must be a day by day practice if we’re to remain faithful to The Way that Jesus lays out within the Bible. We are each only one alternative away from letting our sinful nature rule our lives. It’s small compromises that pave the technique to big falls away from God’s truth.
If we start being attentive, we are able to begin to wonder if being an excellent and faithful servant is even possible. Headlines are full of the moral failings of trusted Christian leaders. In our personal lives, we see family members ravaged by a spouse who fails to stay faithful, addictions that take over our ability to like others well, and pride that claims we are able to make our own way without being accountable to our community. It can all feel so bleak. The Bible warns that the best way is narrow and the trail to destruction is wide and alluring (Matthew 7:13-14).
Then I see how sin grows and starts destroying my very own life. My bitterness and unforgiveness almost swallow up all of the love in my marriage. My anger flashes out of me in moments of stress and wounds my children. Anxiety picks away at my body, my rest, and my trust in God. My pride tells me I would like to look a certain way or achieve a certain sort of life. The reality that I so eagerly wish to overlook is that I’m a broken and sinful creature. I need to live day by day in a posture of humble repentance, repeatedly looking for God for his wisdom and style because, without him, I’m lost.
What Is Repentance?
Acts 2:38 says, “And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one among you within the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you’ll receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Repent is from the Greek word “metanoeo,” which suggests to completely change your paradigm. You admit your error and accept the reality. What a robust word!
Isn’t it true that each single day, we’d like to confess that we’d like our paradigm shifted? We need the flexibility to put aside what seems right in our own eyes and seek to just accept the reality. The great thing about all of that is that Peter explains that the product of repentance is forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Repentance loosens the chains of the accuser who desires to shout we’re guilty! God takes our shame and provides us forgiveness. He blots out our failures. Then, we feel the Holy Spirit rest on us. The Spirit is our helper, he’s our guide, our wisdom giver, and our advocate. It’s by the Spirit, not by our own strength, that we are able to live worthy of the calling God has given each of us (Zachariah 4:6).
Jesus Tells Us to Ask for Daily Forgiveness
We need this cycle of give up, grace, and empowerment to occur day by day. Sometimes, multiple times a day. Jesus points us to this pattern when he teaches us how one can pray. Matthew 6:9-13 is referred to as the Lord’s Prayer. It’s a model from Jesus on how one can pray.
According to this prayer, Christ followers are to hope for forgiveness and offer forgiveness to others day by day. We are to ask God to maintain us from temptation because he knows that the struggle is real. In this prayer, we learn that that is how we experience more of God’s kingdom here on Earth.
Our prayer life is step one in living God’s way and never keeping after our misguided passions. We can assess where our heart is by evaluating what our communication with the Lord looks like. If we would like to maintain near the reality, we must keep near the Lord in prayer and intercession. Daily confession, which is the sensible first step towards repentance, helps us in our quest to live a righteous life. Prayer centers us. It keeps the divine close and real and reminds us that there’s greater than what meets the attention happening in our world.
A Repentant Life Produces the Fruit of the Spirit
Sometimes we wonder, are we actually changing? How can we know now we have modified our way of looking for the world and now live in the reality? Are the people we love sincere once they proclaim their very own desire for change?
A litmus test we are able to depend on is to find out if we’re letting truth guide us is that if we see the fruits of the spirit growing out of our lives. Galatians 5:22-23 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things, there isn’t a law.” A heart that is modified, made latest, a life that’s guided by God’s Holy Spirit relentlessly exudes each of those qualities. We may not embody these items with perfection, but they mark a lot of who you might be that others take note. When they consider you, they consider goodness; they’re impressed at your joy or patience. This is the sunshine of Jesus shining from us!
This past yr, my husband and I actually have needed to faithfully go to the Lord and ask him to assist us repent. Help us to vary. We knew his best was for us to experience the fruits of the spirit in our marriage, but as a substitute, we felt frustration, shame, guilt, anger, disunity, and despair. We have struggled for a few years together, but it surely felt like we were at a tipping point. Things must change, or our time together was fated for separation.
The way I knew that God was answering our prayers, healing our hearts, and changing our patterns was that I started to feel peace and joy in my home again alongside my husband. Truthfully, within the years prior, I often dreaded, avoided, and struggled to be home with my husband. It seemed almost every interaction was full of bitterness. I do know God is working because now I’m starting to trust again that us together is something good. I’m in a position to offer kindness, even when things don’t go quite right in our house. God’s people will probably be known by the fruit produced of their lives.
I feel the technique to someday meeting Jesus and hearing those coveted words, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21), is by embracing the day by day practice of repentance. Faithfully ask God to forgive us. Embrace his gracious forgiveness and extend it freely to others. Rely the Holy Spirit and let him produce good fruit through your precious life.
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