Just a quote from what has become a favorite book…
Radical Gratitude by Ellen Vaughn, from pages 95-96:
For many, the call to repent conjures up cartoon imges of kooky killjoys wearing sandwich boards and shouting at harried people on the sidewalk. Even those who acknowledge the need to repent often think of it in terms of guilt, fear, shame, self-punishment, penance, and “trying to do better.”
But real repentance is decidedly different. It gives no guilt; it leaves no regrets. It is not about working harder to be good and not mess up. Real repentance is intimate, refreshing liberation, astonishingly powerful. It is not self-centered shame, but a God-centered gift of grace. Through it, we come to saving faith in Christ in the first place. Through it we grow in a lifelong relationship with Him.
…It means a fundamental paradigm shift: an inward change of mind after the Spirit’s conviction that results in godly sorrow for sin, confession of it that we might be forgiven, and a change in how we live.
Real repentance springs from God’s initiative, not ours.
NEW!
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I think that’s one of the things I have struggled with the most – trying to MAKE myself repent. If only I knew just how much he wants to change me from the inside. I just keep pushing Him away because I want to do it myself, even though there’s no hope I will ever be able to do so. He HAS to do it. Now, if I could just get out of his way… 😉
I read this and find the timing of her description of the stereotypical view of “repentance” interesting since our family just finished watching the musical “Guys and Dolls.” It portrays the supposed “mission” work of the Salvation Army half a century ago that did exactly as Ms. Vaughn described, “kooky killjoys.” It’s no wonder why in the story that the mission was always empty! Who wants to go somewhere to be beaten with the “club of condemnation”?!? I’m so glad the one and only true God of our Lord Jesus Christ receives us with His soft arms of grace hugging us as we come to Him.