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Repentance Is Not Optional

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I am trying to help my younger child understand a little about the basics of life.  Rules are meant to keep us safe.  Discipline, the enforcement of rules, is an act of love.  When you break rules things break.  When things break, someone has to sacrifice.  Time, money, or both, to put them back together.  If you break the rules and things break, you pay.  For instance, we have a rule that we treat others with respect.  If you choose to trip your sister because you think she got a slightly bigger slice of chocolate cake than you did, there will be a consequence.  You need to repent, say you are sorry.  And while it feels as if  “being sorry” is a choice, it is not.  You will repent now, or you will repent later.  If you are genuinely sorry now, your sorrow over your wrongdoing, may itself be the consequence you bear.  If you show no remorse, you may get your chocolate cake taken away all together.  So while it is true you cannot make a heart humble itself (in that sense repentance is a choice), usually a defiant heart finds reason to be sorry, if not for the act of defiance itself for the consequences that follow.

 

Repentance is a must no matter your age.  Whether you are eight or eighty, chances are there is a thought, a word, or an action it would behoove you to repent for. 

 

“‘None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”  

Romans 3:10 (ESV)

 

 It is not a matter of if we will repent, it is a matter of when.  And while it can seem as if our unrighteousness before a Holy God isn’t that big of a deal now, on that day when He manifests His glory, it will be.  Peter’s urgent messengers to the house of Israel years ago is relevant to men everywhere yet today.

 

“Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of  the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”    

Acts 2:38-39

 

This repentance, or turning away from sin and self and towards the righteousness of God found in Christ is more than just a one time event.  It is a choice that by its very nature will repeat itself.  For the Christian, life is a continual bowing of the knee.  A continual exchange of our sin for the peace of His forgiveness.  A continual exchange of our wills for the greater will of the Greater One.

 

Like a child, my selfish heart grapples with the basics of life.  I so want to be in charge and have things my way, even though the years have taught me that the sooner I bow the knee, the happier I will be.  I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father is patient.  Kind.  Loving.  Forgiving.  Seventy times seven.  It is good for me to have to explain to my younger child why repentance is important.  It is a sermon I need to hear.  And while my child-in-progress does not always appreciate my wisdom, one better day and two cookies later, he begins to understand that while love is kind, it is also firm.  Love wants the very best for the one it loves.  Love knows what is best for the one it loves.  Love leads us to repentance.  At least the best kind of love.

 

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.  I John 3:1

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