Feb 4 – The Beauty of Repentance

This morning in prayer was also a deep time of repentance. I’ve always thought of repentance as unpleasant or painful work. By its very nature it points out the worst parts of myself. But as we were repenting this morning I was filled with Joy. What an incredible gift we have in repentance! The alternative is no repentance, no forgiveness, no mercy, and no transformation.

Yesterday I had to have some work done on our car. As normally happens, an oil change turns into an engine rebuild (not literally but I thought I was spending 20 bucks and ended up in the triple digits!) But, God showed me that we are like that spiritually. When we really press in and seek his face he is going to convict our heart of some sin. It will be the biggest things first, the most glaring issues. But as we confess those things our eyes will be opened more to his holiness. And boom, we realize that there are hundreds of other things that we also need to repent. Like a broken car, a sin in our lives can often be holding together other issues. We don’t notice that the radiator is cracked because the coolant is low. When we add more coolant we realize that the radiator is broken.

That’s what will happen as we begin to seek God. There’s going to be more and more and more repentance. But repentance brings joy, forgiveness, transformation. As we seek after God let’s not get surprised if we begin to expose more of our sin to God and each other. The bad news is you are broken. The good news is so is everyone else. The best news is He is willing to get all the repairs done.

Be Blessed.