I have screwed up a lot of things in my life. I squandered opportunities in ministry by trying to be all things to all people instead of being faithful to God. I have screwed up relationships in my life by not being honest with people or with myself concerning my motivations. I have allowed my insecurities and fear to cause me to be negative, hateful and discouraging to others.
When we hear the word "repent" we think of things like being sorry for what we've done or turning from our sin. The emphasis seems to be on dwelling on what we've done or how we've fallen short. We need to confess our sin to God...that is a given.
The root of the word "repent" means to turn around. To me this is a new understanding about how I seek God's forgiveness. When I "turn around," I put the past behind me and put myself in a new position to receive God's plan, purpose and blessing for my life. So much of the time we get stuck dwelling on sins for which God has already forgiven us. We keep turning back around to the negativity and we lose confidence in God and in ourselves.
Repentance is about putting ourselves in a new and fresh position where we can experience the new thing God has in store for us. We made mistakes but we cannot change what is already done. We cannot go back and get a "do over." It reminds me of the passenger side mirror on my mini van that has the message "objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear." That's life for many of us. The past brokeness and negativity of our lives is always closer than it is in reality. But God wants us to ignore that message on the mirror. Those things that are behind us need to seem farther away. We need to leave our sin behind and turn around and put ourselves in a position for a new movement of the Spirit.
So let us not just be sorry for our misteps...let us do more than turn away from our sin...let us put ourselves in a different position that leaves the past behind and discover the next blessing God has in store for us.
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