True Repentance
How do you know when you're being truly repentant and sorry for your sin? I'm continuing my reading through Isaiah, using a variety of commentaries and study helps, and, while reading about Isaiah 33, here's what this author said regarding when Hezekiah and the people of Israel through themselves upon God's mercy after disobeying Him and sending tribute to the Assyrians... and having the Assyrians invade anyway (2 Kings 18 & 19).
I want to get to the point in my heart that my prayers of repentance are more than words, but a true and strong realization that only God's forgiveness and mercy can save me... and then I want to depend on Him so much that my actions follow that realization.
Ultimately, that's what it's about - do I really trust God enough to obey Him? Disobedience is really just telling God you/I don't trust Him to come through, so I'm going to do it my way, because I know my way will work. Then, when it doesn't, repentance is not only aknowledging that I was wrong, but that I will trust Him and His ways rather than my own... then doing so.
I don't want anybody looking at my actions and questioning (whether they should or not is irrelevant) whether I'm truly sorry for whatever I've done. Isn't that what we want to see in our children. When they apologize for hitting their brother or breaking something because of careless behavior that we warned them about, don't we want them to truly mean it to the point that their following behavior and attitude match their apology? (Their age will help determine how long that lasts, but the reader gets the idea.)
Is there an area of your life that you need to invoke God's grace in... and truly fall upon his power to set you free from that habit, hangup, or wound?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
"The invocation of God's grace is the surest sign of genuine repentance. To ask for grace is to confess that all human effort has proven futile and no human merit can warrant salvation... In these words is the confession that they hold no alternative except total dependence on the power of God to save them." (The Preacher's Commentary, Ed. by Lloyd Ogilvie)
I want to get to the point in my heart that my prayers of repentance are more than words, but a true and strong realization that only God's forgiveness and mercy can save me... and then I want to depend on Him so much that my actions follow that realization.
Ultimately, that's what it's about - do I really trust God enough to obey Him? Disobedience is really just telling God you/I don't trust Him to come through, so I'm going to do it my way, because I know my way will work. Then, when it doesn't, repentance is not only aknowledging that I was wrong, but that I will trust Him and His ways rather than my own... then doing so.
I don't want anybody looking at my actions and questioning (whether they should or not is irrelevant) whether I'm truly sorry for whatever I've done. Isn't that what we want to see in our children. When they apologize for hitting their brother or breaking something because of careless behavior that we warned them about, don't we want them to truly mean it to the point that their following behavior and attitude match their apology? (Their age will help determine how long that lasts, but the reader gets the idea.)
Is there an area of your life that you need to invoke God's grace in... and truly fall upon his power to set you free from that habit, hangup, or wound?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
posted by Pastor Paul at
7:19 AM
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