Repenting...

I'm really getting a message from God... You know, when a theme repeats itself over and over coming from all different sources: book, speech, work, bible, etc...

What does repent mean? To pent again? Well, I guess it does. I think that pent is just a short version of penitent, or remorseful.

I think that we have bought a bill of goods here in the church. Jesus' mercy is all-encompassing and available to all who recieve it. It is sufficient for all of us. But we lazily rest in that and sin continually. I'm generalizing, I know, but it is symptomatic of our culture. We hate the hard thing. Why did Jesus' say we should repent if it's ok to sin? The point is, it's not. It's not OK to struggle with the same things again and again with no victory over them.

I believe that if we really search scripture, pray, and look inside of ourselves we will find that sinning is unacceptable and it needs to stop. Can we stop it? Yes. Yes we can. Will it be easy? No and Yes. No, stopping the behavior will be difficult or at least it can be. The easy will come as we no longer submit to that sin and we reap the rewards of a more substantial voice of the Holy Spirit. It will be easier to live without that constant drum beat of failure. Failing God, failing ourselves, failing our families, and failing our potential growth personally and spiritually.

God it beating this into my head at 38. You know what? It feels good. I've stood on his grace in a life of repetitive failure in some areas. It will be even better to get some victory and at least engage in the fight.

To repent means to turn 180 degrees. Not to stop, but to actively move in the right direction again.

Here's to repenting!!!!!