...repent

In the warm glow of lamp light, the family room looked ready and welcoming for relatives visiting from the west. In the bright sunlight of morning, a different story appeared. There, to my chagrin, on the black DVD, DVR and cable box appeared layers of fine dust, hidden from sight in the darkened room, but in the bright light of morning, there for all to see. This scene reminded me of a verse in scripture: Psalm 90:8 - "You have set our iniquities before You. Our secret sin in the light of Your countenance."

We may think our sins are hidden where no one can see, but Almighty God knows. He is light and there is nothing hidden from His sight. As a layer of dust separates me from being a calm, relaxed hostess, so, too, does sin in our lives separate us from our heavenly Father: "Your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear."  (Isaiah 59:2)

When my eyes see the dust and the prick of guilt strikes my being, what do I do? I grab my Swiffer, rub vigorously and remove those pesky dust bunnies. When the Holy Spirit convicts our souls of sin, what do we do? We run to our Heavenly Father and confess our sins. 

Confession is a combination of two Greek words - "homos" meaning same and "lego" meaning to say.  Confession, therefore, means to agree with God, to see sin as God sees it and to acknowledge it is wrong. When we repent sincerely, we turn 180 degrees away from thoughts, words or actions which have been disobedient to God's word. We humble ourselves, rebuke the enemy, and draw close to our Heavenly Father.

God, for His part, is waiting for us to recognize our sin and turn to Him: "Lord, you are good and ready to forgive. In the day of my trouble, I will call to You and You will answer me." (Psalm 86:5a,7) When we confess, He forgives and removes our sin from us as far as the east is from the west: "I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and You forgave the guilt of my sin.'" (Psalm 32:5)

When my house is clean, I can relax and enjoy visits with company. When our hearts are clean, we have a wonderful peace and a joy that is contagious. Not only do we have joy, but there is rejoicing in heaven: "Likewise I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:10)

We've grown up learning our three R's - "reading, 'riting and 'rithmatic". Even more important are three different R's - Repent, Remove, Rejoice. We repent, God removes, and we all rejoice. Thanks be to God for His wonderful words of wisdom!

-pat earl