Day 5—“If my people…will turn from their wicked ways”

Acts 3:19 (NIV84)
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,

All of us have at some time have been driving or walking in a direction that we thought we should go, but then somehow we realized, “This is not the right way. I’m going in the wrong direction.” So what did you inevitably do? You turned! You changed your mind about the previous way you were going, and you changed directions. In spiritual terms, you repented! You had a change of mind and heart, and you turned in a new direction.

So far in our breakdown of 2 Chronicles 7:14 we’ve seen our need to humble ourselves, to pray, and to seek for his manifest presence to be with us. But none of this will happen if we fail to repent. It’s time to get real with ourselves and with God. It’s time to admit (or perhaps realize) the areas in our lives where we are moving in the wrong direction. And it’s time to turn. Avoid the temptation to go a little further and see if things look better around the next curve. Turn now!

Repentance is of enormous importance if you want God to hear from heaven and heal your land! Repentance was the the first thing Jesus preached (“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”) It was one of the last things Jesus commanded in Revelations (“Be zealous and repent.”) And note that he’s not looking for a lackluster attitude toward repentance. “Be zealous and repent!” Put your heart into it. Dig deep. Turn whole-heartedly. Hold nothing back.

Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the little boy who defied numerous commands from his teacher to sit down. The teacher eventually raised the threat of consequences to the level that the boy begrudgingly sat down. He then looked at the teacher with contempt and said, “In my mind I’m still standing up!”

Many of us repent like the school boy. For fear of consequences we have turned from a  particular sinful behavior, but in our hearts we’re still doing it! (Think Pharisees.) We have not truly repented when we do this; and there’s a good chance that we will eventually resume the old behavior. To repent means more than a change in behavior. Repentance requires us to have a change of heart and mind that results in a change of behavior. This will require some work on our part to seek the truth through God’s Word and through godly counsel.

Matthew 23:27 (NIV84)
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.