Prayer Series 5: Exhale Repentance
Sin. We all fall short (Romans 3:23). We all sin. Even as believers we sin, whether we are strong, weak, mature, or babies in our relationship with the Lord. Do you want to walk in the Spirit? Do you want to be constantly connected and guided by God? Do you want to be maturing in your walk at the fastest pace possible? Well, reality is, sin puts up resistance to our connection with God. Sin is the kink in your hose that prohibits His living water to freely flow into your heart, mind, and soul.
D.L. Moody said it this way: “The fact is, we are leaky vessels, and we have to keep right under the fountain all the time to keep full of Christ, and so have fresh supply.”
The leaks are caused by sin or obstructions we allow that block our own selves from a free and unobstructed connection with God. Praise God for new mercies every morning, because we need a fresh supply of His living water each and every day to give us more of Him and to wash away our fleshy, selfish natures. That fresh supply comes from spending time with God. Yes, corporate church and group Bible study is all good and so is fellowship with other believers, but how is your individual, by-yourself, just you and Him, quality time with God? Are you seeking His will for your life and regularly examining your innermost self through prayer and His Word?
Each time you “inhale His Word, exhale repentance” (Jon Courson). It is so easy to gather up knowledge and temporarily feel better for “the work” of spending time with the Lord, but are you internalizing His Word, being honest about the issues of your own heart, and laying those hard-to-admit, dirty, and impure areas before Jesus in prayer? Ed Taylor tweeted this gem, putting it this way: “The only difference between a strong believer and a weak one is responsiveness.”
True, Biblical repentance is the changing of one’s mind from rejection of Christ to faith in Christ.
"Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.” Acts 3:19
If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, He has forgiven you of all the sin you’ve ever committed and all of the sin you will ever commit. He has made you a pure, blameless, and righteous child of God, so that you can have an unrestricted relationship with Him for eternity. Our salvation will result in a new, born again, changed heart (2 Cor. 5:17) that will bear fruit (Luke 3:8-14). Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action. The action is to grow closer to Him and to mature in our walks with the Lord, by learning more about His heart and His will and then surrendering more and more of our broken sinful natures to Him, seeking His perfect and complete, lacking-nothing plan for our lives (James 1:4).
Sin can be blatant and obvious or it can be those hidden attitudes and thoughts we all are guilty of, and it seems like our sin is constantly changing based on our daily circumstances, relationships, and stages of life. God has a loving way of bringing to light your hard, stubborn, sinful areas when you truly seek Him and meditate on His promises. Do you have sin that’s obstructing that free-flowing living water from filling you up and releasing that promised refreshment of joy, peace, hope, and freedom to you? The answer is YES. We all have some. Is it pride, unforgiveness, bitterness, fear, idols, being fleshly in times of discomfort, impatience, self righteousness, isolation, an overloaded schedule of busy-bodyness, etc… etc… etc… Only you and God know the intentions of your heart (1 Chronicles 28:9). When you pray and spend time with God in His Word alone (just you and Him), admit those obstructions and kinks and ask Him to change you. He will help you and will fill you up with His Spirit! It only hurts me and the others around me when I allow sin in my life, and why would I want to allow kinks in my hose? I don’t know about you, but I need His presence at the volume of a fire hose on a daily basis, and it’s up to me to get those kinks out and allow His refreshing living water to freely flow from Him to me. Inhale His Word, exhale repentance in prayer.