Repentance is Incomprehensible

Repentance is incomprehensible for the man who lives life on his own terms.  It defies logic.  It defies all notions of what is best for the individual.  Repentance is impossible for the man who will not give his life over into the sovereign will of God. Someone living in this country illegally and becoming a Christian, would think it imcomprehensible that God would demand that they return to their country's consolate and confess that they want to make it right with both our country and theirs and accept whatever the representive decreed they would have to do.  A man who has lived as a woman for 20 years would feel that it would be incomprehensible that he be asked to change back into the sex that he was born.  A man would think it incomprehensible that he should forsake all his dreams and goals for marriage and family and quietly submit to a life of uncertainty in a ministry that he was totally unequipped for.

These are all examples of incomprehensible situations.  Maybe they are very cut and dry for you the reader.  Maybe you could easily decide for someone else what they should do with their lives.  That is all your subjective reasoning.  But what happens when the tables are turned?  Are YOU willing to submit to God in what HE tells you to do even if it means you loose your life or that you are resigned to a life of abject solitude because of the choices you make removes you from all means of pursuing your own happiness with the people you so desire!  What would it take for you to surrender your life to God?  That is what I am talking about.  What if God's will were that you have no happiness and live the last two years of your life in obscurity with no way of being recognized?

I remember a situation of a man who was in this country illegally and receiving dialysis.  He was advised that he needed to return to his country to an uncertain situation there to keep from being a burden on other people in the church who had tried numerous times to help him, but for his own rebellion against the rules they set for their houses, he had to leave home after home until he had exhausted all options for habitations and help within the church.  Instead of submitting to the elders of the church, who were all unanimous in their counsel to him, he decided to leave the church and find some way to continue living in the country illegally so that he could receive his dialysis and retain his dreams of working again so that he can go back to his own way in life.  How sad.  He chose to keep his life rather than facing the risk of loosing it for the sake of Christ.  Why do I say this?  Because had he submitted, God would have been able to use this man.  But because he chose to continue in rebellion, he now lives his life like a godless man who has no testimony.

Anyone can repent.  The problem is that for each one of us, there is a challenge, a test that we may be unable to do because it goes against all that we think is logical and safe.  I remember the movie, "Luther", where Martin Luther said, "To go against conscience is neither right nor safe."  He was right.  If it violates your conscience, would you be willing to trust God or would you do what you think is right and safe? If so, you have not repented.

Giving and Taking

Today, two verses have been particularly helpful to me and describe just what is happening in my life at this point:

Job 1:21 And he said, "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
Hebrews 12:3 "Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted."

When things go wrong and it looks like you may be loosing something important to you, how do you respond? Today, it seemed that way at work today and I really wanted to get angry and yell about my rights and threaten people if they were taken away.

When things go wrong, I have found that going away to a quiet place and praying helps. If you are a Christian and something important is lost, your response should be different than that of most people (threatening, anger, depression and burying your sorrows).

For me, it helps to keep my mouth shut when I am angry. I have not developed the qualities yet that allow me to immediately respond with trusting in God rather than in anxiety regarding the situation.

The question is, "Why should our response to disappointments be trust in God and forgiveness to those who offend us rather than anger and getting back with them for treading on our pride?" The answer is that God cares about those people and wants to see them turn from the road they are following toward destruction and follow Jesus who is the path to life. God also loves you and doesn't like to see you hurt but cares for you infinitely and would never allow anything to hurt you unless he knew it were for your good and theirs.

When people see our different response to disappointment, God is glorified. When we respond like the world does, we are glorified and the other person humiliated or hurt. Let us seek as Christians to glorify God so that other people will see His beauty rather than glorifying ourselves and contributing to the darkness in the world.