REPENT!
REPENT!
REPENT!!!!
Does the word repent scare you? It’s kind of an intimidating word for
something that’s not that big of a word but it seems that often people are
screaming it… and really… we only have to repent when we are not in line with
Christ, which is scary enough, wouldn’t you agree?
I’ve been doing this devotional “Whispers of Hope”
by Beth Moore, which I will be telling you more about later…
One of the journaling items is that when we pray,
we must repent when we pray. I will tell
you, that even though I know that this brings me closer to God, I don’t always
do it when I sit down during my alone time with God, I mean often I talk to
God, repent, but I don’t always take this reverent approach. I will tell you that since I’ve been doing
it, it’s really brought me closer to God.
It’s been so amazing, to see my prayers just go
deeper with Him. To get to the core of
my own heart, to break down any barriers that is between Him and me. Sometimes in the quiet time I have found and
destroyed barriers that I didn’t even know were there. It is my sin that gets in the way of Christ
working in my life. Last night during a
teaching it was said “the way we make a way for Christ is repentance”. That really struck a chord with me because God
had been rocking my world with coming before with a repentant heart.
It’s been absolutely beautiful, and I will also
say that I have seen the answers to my prayers right away. Not because He was faster in answering them
but because I am faster at recognizing them (and His work in my life).
I’m so very thankful for this devotional and the
way God is using it to bring me closer to Him.
In the big stack of books I received to review, this one really was the
one I was most excited about because I knew that God works so much in prayers,
not just in the answers, but the way He moves in our hearts and brings us
closer to Him.
Matthew
3:1-12
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching
in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is
he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s
hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild
honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and
all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing
their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of
vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce
fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think
you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out
of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The
ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce
good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.11 “I baptize you with[b] water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with[c] the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
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