Good morning,
According to the dictionary, Repentance means, “to express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrongdoing or sin”. Repentance is a very common word in Christian circles. However, do we really understand what it means to repent? Today we shall consider true biblical repentance and how we can practically apply it in our daily lives.
Ezekiel 16:63 starts with the words, “Then Thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed…” If you read the preceding chapters, you will see God venting out his anger over the sinful acts of the children of Israel. Here, God is rounding up by saying that after punishing them sorely, they will remember their ways and be ashamed.
- Ashamedness: The first step of true repentance is a feeling of shame. You will feel ashamed that you have done something beneath you. When you lie, you should think about it and feel ashamed, not feel justified or just feel like you made a mistake. I will share one of my personal experiences in the audio version of this devotional. Check it on YouTube or join the WhatsApp group to get it. When you begin to feel ashamed, you can either run from God like Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden or you can turn to Jesus in sorrow of heart. If you are truly sorry for the wrong you have done, you will feel sorry in your heart. You will likely start shedding tears as you cry to Jesus Christ for mercy.
- Perseverance: Persevere in prayer until you get to that stage where your spirit is broken. You cannot rush God to have mercy on you. That only shows that you are not serious. Remember that you offended God by your evil deed, and He is not happy with you. A few minutes of apology will not cut it. Think about when someone you love betrays you, will you think that the person is truly sorry if the person just throws you a casual apology? No! But if the person comes to you begging and crying, then you may really begin to think that the person is genuinely sorry. God says in Ezekiel 34:16 that he will bind up that which was broken and in Psalm 51:17 that he will not despise a broken spirit and a contrite heart.
- Importunity: If someone has deeply hurt you but can only spare a few minutes to say sorry and quickly rushes off to something more important, you will consider the persons action as just a show. But if the person keeps refuses to go away but stays there begging and crying in tears, you will eventually attend to the person because then you know the person is serious about getting your forgiveness. You may not accept the person back into your life so to say. But you will attend to the person just so that they will stop bothering you.
- Change: Change is the proof of true repentance. If someone keeps lying to you and comes begging and crying for repentance each time, you will know the person is not serious with you yet. Until there is a noticeable change in your ways, your repentance is not complete. God will not start any serious dealings with you yet if you keep doing the same evil acts repeatedly simply because He cannot trust you.
I encourage you to make up your mind to show God you are ready to be serious with him today.
This is Sinner To Saint devotional and you can watch or listen to it every morning on YouTube with the handle: Joy Taiwo or read it on https://www.taiwojoyebere.com
God bless you!
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