Day 26
If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
—2 CHRONICLES 7:14 (ESV)
“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”
—JEREMIAH 3:22 (NLT)
Repentance and submission are concepts we don’t much like the sound of. Something inside of us rises up in rebellion against admitting we are wrong or giving up our rights or relinquishing control. The submission of our wills to God flies in the face of everything our self-reliant, independence-seeking hearts hold dear. But God loves to live in paradox—confounding our finite wisdom with his ancient Truth: It is only when we lose our life that we will find it.
We unlock God’s power in our lives when we live in a state of continual repentance and submission—the TURNING AWAY from wrong patterns of thought and behavior and the TURNING OVER of our wills to God. (“Not my will but Yours be done” Luke 22:42.)
Turning away and turning over—the gateway to Life and the pathway to peace amidst the chaos of this world.
“Now what was the sort of ‘hole’ man had got himself into? He had tried to set up on his own, to behave as if he belonged to himself. In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor—that is the only way out of a ‘hole.’ This process of surrender—this movement full speed astern—is what Christians call repentance. Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training our- selves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death.”
—CS Lewis
“It is the greatest and dearest blessing that ever God gave to men, that they may repent; and therefore to deny or to delay it is to refuse health when brought by the skill of the physician—to refuse liberty offered to us by our gracious Lord.” (Jeremy Taylor 1613-1667)
Let’s not deny or delay. Let’s turn away from the patterns of thoughts and behaviors that have been causing this drift away from Jesus. Turn over to God your right to yourself, and you’re your heart to receive the health and freedom that God brings to a humble heart.
