Repent

One of the very first things my soon to be mentor told me (over 30 years ago) was, “You need to repent.”

A spirit of conviction immediately hit me and I agreed. Then I started to chuckle. This man who had known me for only a very short time asked what was so funny. My reply was that I thought I might need to repent again. The original sin had been my bad mouthing an elected official. The second sin was my feeling of self-righteousness for having repented over this particular individual.

And so began our mentor/mentee relationship and the reminder for me to repent on an almost daily basis for the first year. That mentor is now 94 years old and remains willing and able to remind me to repent when my mouth gets the better of me. But, having become sensitive to my need to repent, the Holy Spirit usually beats him to the draw these days.

Considering the emphasis scripture puts on repentance in both the Old and the New Testament, is seems to be either a lost or waning art. Hell fire and damnation sermons seem to have been overtaken by a kinder, gentler sermon in many churches. And, if you look at what is accepted by our culture, you would believe the number of things for which you might need to repent has been reduced. Worse yet, many Christians do not see a need for their personal repentance — after all they are already saved, right?

The problem is, we have changed, but God’s standard has not. He continues to expect us to repent and turn from our evil ways, even if, in our opinion we are doing nothing wrong. And there is the flaw. God never asked us for our opinion on good and evil. They are not concepts we get to define by our own standards and preferences. He has told us in scripture to love good and hate evil. But, again, He has defined the terms.

My wake up call to repentance all those years ago remains fresh in my mind because of how precious the gift of awareness is. Blessed with a quick wit and a smart mouth, it is easy to use the gift in unrighteous ways. A near stranger (who has become a beloved mentor) called me out. Then he held me accountable. Thank you, Bud.

But, you do not have to wait for someone to call you out. All you have to do if you think everything in your household is in order is ask the Lord to show you the things you need to change. The to-do list He will drop on you will keep you busy until you have the courage to ask if there is anything else He needs to add to the list.

Trust me. He will give you a list every time you ask until repentance becomes a habit. By then, you just wake up in the morning, repent for what you did yesterday and get a jump on tomorrow by repenting for what you are likely to do today.

Lord, thank you for the gift of repentance. I pray that You will pour it out on the nations. Make us aware of our sins against you, and give us the desire to repent and return to your righteous ways. Amen