My oldest daughter and her family left last Saturday headed for Pennsylvania where her husband will be working for 6 months. It was a long trip from Louisiana especially with 4 children ages 1, 3,5 and 8. On their second day of traveling, my grandson Eli, who is 5, told his mama "I think we are driving in circles. I keep seeing that same Cracker Barrel". Of course, she had to explain to him that there are many Cracker Barrel's around and that they were not driving in circles. But as she told me this story and we laughed about it, the Lord began speaking to me.
Have you ever felt like you were going in circles in your spiritual life? Has the Lord ever dealt with you on certain aspects of your walk and you think you have been obedient, but then you find yourself right back in the same mess again?
There are times when we think that we have allowed God to work in our lives to resolve certain attitudes or actions that are anything but godly and holy. We tend to be under the assumption that once we have acknowledged our sin and confess it to our Lord, that we have taken the necessary steps to totally circumcise those ungodly and unholy behaviors from our lives. But that just isn't the case. It not only takes admission of sin and confession of sin, but it also takes true repentance.
Repent is the translation of a Greek verb metanoeo, which means 'to change the mind'. If we honestly have a repentant heart, then we have changed our mind in respect to our sin, to God and to our self. When we honestly desire to be like Jesus, we desire to do whatever it takes to make that happen. We have to change the way we think and the way we act. We have to completely turn away from those sinful areas of our lives and turn to a life of obedience in Christ.
If we fail to do this, we are just going to keep passing that same Cracker Barrel. Over and over again. And we will keep repenting of the same sins over and over again. We will be making no headway in our quest to follow after God and walk in His ways. We have to give it to God and surrender our will to His. Allow Him to help us make the necessary changes in our lives so that we can walk like Him, talk like Him and follow Him all the days of our lives.
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing. Never thought about it like that, as I try to see a linear progression that would show a slight improvement thanks to the grace of the Lord (of course). Be blessed!
This is so true. And sometimes in our busy-ness we don't even notice the cracker barrel...it is essential that we take time to examine our hearts regularly, so that those things that sneak in and hide in unsuspecting places can be revealed and exposed...leading to repentance and true change. Thanks for sharing...God has us on the same page it seems. :)
Post a Comment