Repentance
In some of my reading this morning, I ran across this analysis of the act of repentance written by Charlie Peacock:
When I was younger I got the idea that repentance was fessing up to particular sins, renouncing them, asking forgiveness for them, and turning from those particular sins toward right behavior. I even went through a dismal period where I made promises to God to never do the bad things again, or at least to try a lot harder not to do them. Without denigrating my good response of confessing sin or saying no to ungodliness, let me make clear that repentance is much more than simply fessing up to various sins or trying to do better. Since sin is always about having some other agrenda than God’s, repentance is first about turning from my false understanding of reality to God’s true reality. When the eyes of my heart are enlightened, I see reality as it is and remark to myself, Uh-oh, I’m moving in the wrong direction, away from God and his ways.
If pressed to define repentance, I would say: Repentance means giving up my way of living life and being human in exchange for the way God means his people to live life and be human.¹
My prayer is that God would help me (and us as Christians) to view my sin for what it is, and to see it in light of the reality of God’s view. I pray that repentance would mean constantly checking my direction with His, and making the change of direction when He reveals that I’m off course–not just asking for forgiveness and going on along my merry way.
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