The ball is in your court ......

Continuing with my thoughts from yesterday .....

I wrote about people not just making decisions for Christ but becoming disciples of Christ. This involves real repentance. Repentance is more than being sorry for your sin. Most sinners are sorry for their sins. I’ve done a lot of things that I was sorry about but being sorry never got me out of the problem. Repentance is more than being sorry. It involves changing the way we think about God and the way we think about sin. We have to choose to hate sin and love God. We need to see the pain and destruction our sin has brought to God, to other people, and to ourselves.

Repentance is a change of living, feeling, and willing. We choose to turn our backs to sin and choose to obey God. Repentance is seeing our sin for what it is – an abomination to God. Because of our sin, Jesus had to die. We helped to cause him all that pain. It is only when we see that our sin cost Jesus his life that we can turn away from ourselves and willingly serve God. Repentance has to come from the heart and has to produce a changed life.

Repentance has to be a work of the Holy Spirit in your life. We are blinded by our sin and the Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see areas that we need to work on. Only God can see into the very crevices of our heart. He knows what we really think and feel. He wants us to see ourselves as who we really are – selfish, angry, jealous, etc…

Peace comes when we get honest with ourselves about our sin and ask God for forgiveness. The Holy Spirit wants to convict us so we can repent and be restored. Don’t make excuses for sin or try to cover them up. The Holy Spirit sees all the crud in our lives and He brings conviction. He does anything he can to get our attention. Don’t ignore Him. Take responsibility for your sins and confess them. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (I John 1:9) If we truly repent and make a decision to live differently, He will forgive us and help us move forward. The ball is in your court …. and mine.