The Spirit of Repentance

Scripture: Now then make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives. Ezra 10:11

Observation: It isn't enough for the people to confess their sins to God, they must also repent - to actively turn away from their sin, and undo that part of their lives. In this case, it is an extreme example: They must give up their wives and children because they married foreign people who worship other gods against God's law. However, all sin violates God's law, and all sin is equal ... thus in the case of every sin people must both ask forgiveness of the sin and repent of it.

Application: I struggle with this in the sins in my life. I'm ok confessing those sins - in telling God "here is a sin I committed, please forgive me." Of course, he already knows my sin, he didn't need me to tell him about it, and he has already provided Jesus as a means to aid in my forgiveness. What God REALLY wants me to do is to repent ... to turn away from the sin, turn my heart away from the thoughts and habits that produced the sin, remove myself from situations that trigger or tempt me, and thus never commit that sin again.

This is hard. So hard, in fact, that most of us can't do it. And that is the true wonder of the Holy Spirit. In many cases, it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that a heart can be changed.

In the example in Ezra, there was a practical action that could aid in repentance ... divorcing the foreign wives. In my case, there are also changes I can make, and I am working on those. For example, I am changing some of my staffing situations in order to remove people who cause me emotions like anger and frustration, and thus trigger sins like poor thoughts or bad language.

However, I must also fix my heart, and for this I need the Holy Spirit. I need to change my attitudes in a holistic way in my life so that similar situations still can't trigger the same sins. this will start with a healthy love for others, and fruits of the spirit like love, patience, gentleness, and self control. These are called fruits "of the spirit" because the Holy Spirit can produce them within me, and I need them.

Prayer: Lord, I do pray for your spirit to be within me throughout my days to aid me in repenting of my sins. I am so quick to anger and quick to judgment, and I truly wish to turn away from those issues. Please help me repent. Please change my heart so that you may be better reflected through me in the world. Amen.