Hi Everyone,
Sometimes I feel trapped when I fly on a plane. I mean, you board, find your seat, put everything in the overhead bins or under the seat in front of you, get strapped in and pay attention the safety instructions. What can you do then? Nothing. You can't get up to use the bathroom until you're two miles up in the air and the captain has turned off the seat-belt sign. You certainly can't get up before then, and forget about getting off the plane. If you tried, surely there's a Federal Air Marshal on board who will take you down if you cause a problem. Let's face it: you're stuck on the plane until it (hopefully) safely lands. You can't change your mind once you're on the plane. But things are a bit different in our relationship with Christ. For the unbeliever and the believer alike, we can change our minds in mid-flight.
We can do something about heading in the wrong direction. We can do something about our wrong definition of life. We can do something about the wrong image of ourselves. We can do something about our distorted image of God.
The Bible defines this change of mind as repentance.
Malcolm Smith puts it this way: "It [repentance] is the realization that...one's life has been wrong because it has been lived from the wrong center. It is not repenting of a certain sin, but a change of mind about oneself, realizing that he or she is lost and does not know the way to life.... The real issue now, in fact, is not sin. The Jesus who comes to us in the Gospel has dealt with sin. The issue now is whether we will accept the divine amnesty, let Him send away our sins from us, and be reconciled to God. Will we turn from our self-sufficiency and submit to love? We are confronted with the love of God and the action of His love in Jesus, and the whole issue now is whether we will turn from our independence, our faith in the lie, and submit to the love of God and His gift of covenant in Jesus."
Every action (for good or bad) has its root in our beliefs. And this brings us to the true definition of repentance. With our minds so focused on the externals and our performance, we must see that we cannot define true repentance as turning from something, but rather, turning to something; in this case, Jesus, the Son of God. It is in Him that we find the covenant and our salvation. If a person refuses to turn from self-sufficiency and dependence and to Jesus, that person will perish. It can be no other way, since Jesus is the source of Life.
This turning from oneself is not easy for most, because we all have been taught and even found some measure of success in our independence and self-sufficiency. We have been married to that lie for a long time and we are accustomed to the rule that a person gets what they deserve. The covenant that God has made "confronts us with the God who loves us unconditionally and rewards us not according to what we have done, but according to what Jesus has done. To believe this is the first radical change of mind that believing the Gospel demands of us" (again, Malcolm Smith).
I pray that this will help you to repent (to change your mind radically), and that the reality of the covenant God has made with Himself and offered to you, His beneficiary, would become greater than the reality of your alleged strength and self-sufficiency. May the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His Glory and Grace.
Grace=Peace,
Jeremy
P.S. If you've received this email, it's because I've added you to a list of recipients for this devotional which I will send out 2 to 3 times a week (depending on how busy I am). You can also find these devotionals archived at www.jdkrider.blogspot.com. If you would not like to receive these emails, please let me know. I simply want to share with you what is helping me to grow in my faith with the hope it will bless you. Also, your comments and questions are more than welcome, and even encouraged!
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