2 Chronicles 6:36-38
36 “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; 37 yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness’;
Luke 15:17-20
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”
Each of these examples was followed by two things: Confession, and repentance.
The acts of our worldly indulgences catches us up and takes us out of the center of the Father’s will, and it can do that for a variety of reasons, all of which culminates in one: we don’t abide in godly thought.
If thought is the catalyst to action, like faith is to miracles, then our thought patterns lead us astray, and we act accordingly.
Under the covenant and dispensation of grace, Paul tells us we are not to keep sinning so we can keep receiving grace. The Lord Jesus would rather we believe, obey, and work out our salvation with our only fear being of God casting soul and body into hell, out of His presence to be destroyed as if we’d never existed.
Yet as horrible a thought (and reality) as that may one day be, we go on sinning, small and large, greater and lesser, all of which will be summed up in another way if we don’t confess and repent:
“Depart from me. I never knew you.”
Whether we have let ourselves become spiritually weak, or act out being carnally rebellious, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we are out of God’s will, and we need to get back to the safety, assurance, and salvation of it.
We need to get back to ourselves while it is not to late for Jesus to restore us back into fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Yet to give us a heart of flesh and renew a right spirit within us, He will break our hard hearts open with the same words He used to restore Peter:
“Do you love me?”
What will you say?
Therefore I pray:
Lord Jesus, I confess my sins, repent of my wrongdoing, and grieve that I grieved the Holy Spirit and turned the Father’s face from me by returning once more to seek worldly accolades from those who would lead me astray because they’re faithless.
As You reminded those who walked with You that satan had no part in You, remind us of that as well through the Holy Spirit, that we might remain in the fold of Your hand, knowing he can’t take us out of it unless we wander according to our own will. As we follow You, and You alone, Lord Jesus, He has no part in us save that which we surrender when we are covered in circumstances that take all we have to survive.
Then increase our faith and help our unbelief, for the Father sees us on the wrong path and sends You (once more) to get us.
We are grateful the angels celebrate, and the Father rejoices over us with singing and renewed fellowship, as if we’d never sinned. Indeed, as we plead Your atoning work over our lives, He has said He will remember it no more, and we won’t have to hold it to account.
While I am yet myself, help me to stay on the narrow path, guided by You, that I may find life eternal. I would hear You bid me enter into my Father’s rest, and my works withstand the refining fire.
And when I once again return to myself, hear me from Heaven, and restore me once more until You call me home.
By faith I ask, believing I’ve already received.
Amen.
believer55 