This is my current phrase for repentance. I hate that for me it usually works this way. I wish that I would look up to God naturally, because I want to, because I love to. However, I find that my attention gets focused on the things of this world - which is another way of saying idolatry. (But that’s a different sermon and blog)
What’s on God’s wish list - Read Psalm 51 - one of the passages for this Sunday - to find that God loves a broken and contrite heart - a broken spirit. For me having a broken spirit means to hit bottom - come to the end of my resources - and then look up to him crying out for him to rescue me and lead me into the fullness of life with him as a pastor, father, husband, friend and citizen.
How do you experience and define repentance?
#1 by Tom Nagel on November 4th, 2009 - 2:19 pm
For me, repentance often starts when something (material or otherwise) is taken away, and leads me to a place where God begins to supplant my reliance upon the thing that was taken away - even if He eventually gives it back.
#2 by Rhonda Denterlein on November 14th, 2009 - 5:38 pm
It is always interesting to me when something I have been studying in Bible study (the life of David, including Ps. 51) comes up in the sermon or vice versa. Ok God, you have my attention; this is something important. David is referred to as a man after God’s own heart because he loved, trusted, and obeyed God. Yet even he blew it in big ways! He repented, however, and received God’s forgiveness. That is comforting to me. However, David still received some serious consequences - his and Bathsheba’s son died, one of his sons raped one of David’s daughters and was then killed by another son. It is hard for me to understand fully how sin, repentance, consequences, and grace and mercy all fit together.