Repentance: December 9 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY DECEMBER 9, 2013

REPENTANCE

DEFINITION:

Be contrite; be penitent; to experience sorrow for and seek to change wrong behavior.

SCRIPTURE:

Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham for our father, for I say to you from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Luke 3:8.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Repentance means to change one’s mind and start moving the other way. In today’s society just as in years past people will admit they have sinned and say they have remorse but are not willing to change their behavior. Repentance is not merely regretting or being remorseful for one’s sin but it necessitates a complete turning away from sin and turning to God.

One of the greatest preachers of repentance in the Bible was John the Baptist. In message after message he called those that were listening to him to perform a complete “about face.”

John insisted that it was not sufficient to exhibit only superficial contrition. Genuine repentance means to “bear fruits in keeping with repentance,” Luke 3:8 above. Repentance must be followed by action to be real. When his listeners asked what he meant by that, they were told to share their food and clothing, to be fair in their business practices, and to be content with their wages. In other words, they were to change their ways and leave their old practices of sinful behavior behind.

But repentance includes something else according to the Word of God. There must be a willingness to make restitution to anyone that was wronged. An illustration is found in Luke 19 when Zaccheus, the tax collector, received Jesus and repented by saying to Jesus, “If I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.”

If you have ever watched soldiers do their drills on a parade field, you will have noticed that when the leader calls out,” to the rear, March” in unison they all reverse their direction and march the other way. This is what repentance means for those who desire to be saved. God is saying, “To the rear, March,” and one needs to reverse directions to follow Jesus. This is the result of real repentance.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in I John 3:23.

This is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.

PRAYER:

Help us, as a family, to understand what repentance means. Help us to turn away from our sinful ways and live our lives in a way that others may see Your love in us and see their need to repent of their sins and be saved.