Reset: Day 7 - Living Hope Clarksville

Day 7
REPENT

Reminder: Yesterday you chose a specific start time for your Reset. Hopefully that time is right now. You’re launching your prayer time at your best time of day. Awesome!

When we meditate in Scripture, we set ourselves up to be challenged by the Spirit of truth. He convicts of sin so we might repent.

Jesus’ first call to His generation was to repent (Mark 1:15), and it’s still the first thing He calls us to.

Repentance. An earthquake on the inside. It’s a regular and ongoing discipline for every disciple of Christ. Its basic idea is change. It says both no and yes. Repentance says no to the sinful behaviors He’s showing us, and yes to the new actions and attitudes He’s inviting us into.

A commitment to repentance realizes that as long as we’re breathing we’re in need of personal change.

Repentance is often a response to seeing more

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:8)

of God. For example, Jesus once told His disciples to launch into the lake and lower their nets for a catch of fish. They had caught nothing all night, but at the word of Christ they obeyed. Immediately, they caught so many fish their nets began to break. Peter’s response was to repent.

When Peter witnessed Christ’s glory, he realized how sinful he was. The same happens with us. When He reveals to us fresh glimpses of His magnificence, repentance is our natural response.

PRAY. Ask to see Him. Express the cry of your heart for greater revelation into the excellences of Christ.

A disciple hides no secrets from Christ. That Judas Iscariot hid his pilfering from Jesus demonstrated that he was no true disciple. True disciples open the doors of their soul wide to the Savior’s search.

Search me, O God, and know my heart. (Ps 139:23)

Look how David prayed:

David wanted the Lord to know every dark place in his heart. He knew he could never overcome that which remained hidden. When we acknowledge our sin, grace immediately empowers us to turn from it and toward Jesus in affectionate obedience.

PRAY. Take a few minutes to pray David’s marvelous prayer, Search me. Know me. Resolve to never hide anything from your Savior. Express how eagerly you want repentance and change to always be your companions. Nothing is out of bounds to His searching gaze.

One element in repentance is the transformation of the mind:

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Rom 12:2)

Our minds are renewed when we allow the truth of God’s word to change how we think. The best change happens from the inside out, starting first in the heart and then demonstrating itself in action.

PRAY. Take a few minutes to meditate on Romans 12:2. Ask Him to open your understanding to the verse. Lord, transform my mind so that I no longer think like the world. I want to think like You do. Give me Your good and perfect will.

Is there anything the Holy Spirit has been nudging you to repent of recently? If so, write down in the space below what He is challenging you to change. Or write a recent change He has helped you make.

As you leave your place of prayer now, whisper a prayer along these lines: Lord Jesus, as I meditate in Your word, I commit to turn away from anything that needs to go. Help me by Your grace to live a life of repentance. I love You.

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