PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Romans 2:1–4 (NIV)
You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
CONSIDER THIS
I remember it like it was yesterday. It was way back in the late 1900s, near the turn of the century. I was a local church pastor in Texas. One day our worship leader invited me to listen to a new song he was writing and give him my thoughts. The song gripped me and to remember it takes me there. Here are some of the words:
Open up the skies of mercy.
Rain down the cleansing flood
Healing waters rise around us
Hear our cries, Lord
Let them rise
And then the chorus:
It’s your kindness, Lord
That leads us to repentance.
Your favor Lord is our desire.
It’s your beauty, Lord
That makes us stand in silence.
And your love is better than life.
My thoughts? Wow! Amazing! Perfect.
Though I had contributed thoughts and ideas to some of his other songs, I was speechless before this one.
The song revealed something about repentance I had never grasped. In those days repentance felt to me like behavior management. You know—stop sinning.
If there were two words I would not have connected it would have been kindness and repentance. And there they are plain as day in today’s text:
God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?
The Greek word behind repentance is metanoia. It means to have a change of mindset. A related meaning for repentance is to make a 180-degree turnaround.
It brings us back around to our conversation about focus. Will we focus on the problem of Sin or on the person of Jesus? We can’t simultaneously focus on that which we are turning away from and that which we are turning to. We must choose. The focus of repentance is not on turning away from sin but on turning to Jesus.
The person of Jesus is the riches of the kindness of God. As we turn to him we begin to turn our lives over to him and sin loses not only its luster but its power. It’s why the gospel is the power of God for the salvation of all who will believe. It’s why the gospel is Jesus.
THE PRAYER
Jesus, we belong to you. Yes, Jesus, I belong to you. Jesus, you are the gospel. You are the kindness of God. You are the power of God. It’s why I love to repent because it means turning to you. As I am turned to you I cannot at the same time be turned to sin. Come Holy Spirit and train me in this turning to Jesus and turning my life over to him. It is an awe-filled thought to fathom how he has turned his life toward me. What a kindness. Praying in Jesus’s name, amen.
THE QUESTION
What thoughts and images does the word repentance conjure in your mind and heart? Does this help you to reframe it by focusing on the one we are turning to?
THE HYMN
I’m going to be calling an audible for today’s hymn. The Spirit will lead. You will have to listen to the podcast to get it. And for those of you who haven’t tried, please do! The link is at the top.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
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3 Responses
Today’s Wake-up Call brings to mind some thoughts that’d come into my my mind when I was preparing to give a lesson based on Hebrews 12:1-3, about throwing off the sin that so easily trips us up and running the race with perseverance by keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. In this mental vision I imagined a group of toddlers sitting around playing with their toys, totally oblivious to the fact that the building they were situated in was on fire. Jesus was pictured as a modern day fireman who had come into the midst of the smoke and flames to rescue them. He told them to join hands and follow him out to safety. Some did respond in obedience and as a result, were led to safety. The majority though, ignored his summons and continued to play with their toys. Repentance for me, means to respond to Jesus’s call with trust and obedience.
Just returned from a Kairos weekend. God had His way despite our humanity. Praise the name of Jesus! Lives were changed. Pray now that the evil one doesn’t have his way any longer in those 24 inmates.
The kindness (mercy and grace) of God is the pavement to repentance. I pray that they will love Jesus more than anything they are tempted by.
Isn’t that what resists the devil? Love. Love in Christ? We love God, we submit to God, and our love for Him and His love for us causes the devil to flee. Then we move closer still, and God, like with the prodigal son, closes the gap.
Repentance is the revolving door that flings us into God’s loving arms.
The world doesn’t change, we do.
Then we learn to pray to change the world through the repentance of all. So none will perish but have eternal life.
Luke 13:3
No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Staying 💪’n Christ
To repent is to re-view life from God’s perspective.
God in His kindness shines His light in human hearts. His glorious light causes us to reframe, refocus, rethink, and renew how we view and interpret our daily life. Then we begin to see life from God’s perspective through the beautiful characteristics of the fruit of the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23.) If we reject or resist God’s light and refuse to see, we stay stuck in the fleshly confines and confusion our own self-based perspective.