6.15.19 Praise & Prayer Prompt: Repentance

PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• I really didn’t intend to turn this into a series, but that seems to have happened.
We’ve talked about forgiveness, forgetting, and today, let’s talk about repentance.
It may seem I’ve gone out of order here but just as I hadn’t planned to write a series, I think this order may be exactly right.
We need repentance in order to experience forgiveness, but in order to ask for forgiveness, we have to understand what it is.
The foundation of God’s forgiveness is rooted in this truth, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Though the magnitude of Christ’s love cannot be fathomed, we serve a Holy God who cannot condone sin.
His perfection cannot tolerate it.
Therefore, we have to repent.
We’re born with sinful natures and in Acts 3:19, it says, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.”
Repentance is more than saying, “I’m sorry.”
The real indicator of a repentant heart is found in the two words in the middle of the verse—“turn back.”
To repent is to stop, and turn away from our past behaviors.
To be utterly disgusted by the wrongness we’ve committed to the point that we want to walk away from that brand of sin and never repeat it.
We live in a world that celebrates “do what feels right,” and “you’re great just the way you are!”
But those are lies.
We don’t have the right to do whatever we want and next to God’s holiness and perfection, we are vile and disgusting.
It’s like a favorite white shirt.
You wear it and wear it and think it’s a perfectly good white shirt.
And then, you stand next to a brand new white shirt.
And you realize how dingy and dull your white shirt is compared to the pristine bright white of a shirt that has never been worn.
That’s how we have to see ourselves beside Jesus.
While the world would say, “don’t compare,” the truth is—there’s no comparison.
It’s not open for debate because you and I are dingy, stained, and dirty compared to the perfect, sinless Jesus Christ.
Yet with a repentant heart, we can let the blood of Jesus make our dingy, stained selves clean.
We can experience what John wrote in 1 John 1:7-9, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Today, as you pray, praise Jesus for His perfection and that His blood can wash away sins.
Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin in your life that you need to repent of so that you can turn back, and be made clean.