Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Corinthians 7:1)
Last week, we talked about confession. We said that the first person we must ask forgiveness from whenever we do wrong is God. The good news is we found out last week that God has a perfect record. Every time we sincerely confess our sins to God, God surely forgives us. The problem is too many people stop at confession and they think that all they have to do is just confess and all is well. But there is a second step that must be taken. I call it the seismic shift. A seismic shift is when there is a shifting in rocks so great that it causes another earthquake. There is a seismic shift that must take place with us and our sin if we are going to truly maintain our fellowship with God and that is found in the word “repentance.”
So today, I want us to look at the first step we need to take in order for this seismic shift to happen in our lives. Then tomorrow, we’ll take a look at the second and third steps.
First, for a seismic shift to happen in our lives, we must first truly realize our sin. One of the most loving things we can do for other people who have committed a sin and have done something wrong is to let them know it. This is exactly what Paul had done. He had founded this church. He was the spiritual father of many of these people. He confronted them with the fact there was sin in the church, and they had not dealt with it and, therefore, they had become a part of the sin. He wrote them a letter to rebuke them and exhort them to do the right thing.
When they received this letter, they could have had a lot of emotions...anger, arrogance, apathy. Instead, they were full of grief and full of sorrow. Paul said that was a good thing. Do you know why? Grief and sorrow are signs of a broken heart. Whenever we sin, we should have a broken heart, because we have broken the heart of God. Though it hurt Paul to hurt them, it actually gladdened Paul that they were hurt. With this in mind, my prayer is that you will spend time today in prayer and ask the Lord to reveal your sin to you so that you might truly realize it and move forward down the path of redemption.
Dear Lord, I want you to make my sin known to me right now. Bring to mind an unconfessed, unrepented sin that I have yet to address. I pray that you would forgive me of these shortcomings. I choose now to repent and walk instead in the path of your righteousness. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Topics: Repentance
