On Repentance

Author: Lisa Groen

Category: Prayer and devotional blend

Dear Heavenly Father, from the time we have heard the Gospel, the true gospel, we heard that in our flesh “nothing good dwells” –Romans 7:18. We need oftentimes reminders that we have no good in ourselves to add to God’s desire to save us. Philippians 4:13 reads “for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” We have nothing in us that qualifies us for forgiveness, and nothing in us that adds up to meriting Christ’s gift of righteousness—Romans 3:9-20; Psalm 53:1-3. We must realize that all of salvation is an act of the Sovereign grace of God, and as we believe, and are overwhelmed by Your undeserved goodness Oh God, we feel the tug on our hearts to “put to death whatever belongs to our earthly nature.” Through believing we must realize our willingness to repent is a fruit of God already having done something in our hearts to cause us to want to repent. For Psalm 31:19 reads “How great is Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have bestowed before the sons of men on those who take refuge in You!  And Ezekiel 11:19 reads, “And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh”. May we sincerely meditate on Romans 6:1, and 6:15 which state: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? Romans 2:4 reads “Or do you despise the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” We must be renewed in the truth Oh Lord it is You Alone who justifies the sinner based on the perfect and complete work of Christ already having died for us on the cross WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS. Romans 5:8-9 states “But God proves His love for us in this: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!” And this giving us a clear hope and solid place to stand at the foot of the cross of Jesus. We must realize Oh God that Jesus is just as the song says the “Joy of my Desire” (In Haggai 2:7 the Lord says, “I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory.”) May we be mindful of Psalm 34:8 which reads “Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” and that there is no higher love that we get to taste while on this earth. You are seeking our love Oh Lord, and You are seeking our affection Oh Lord. Colin Smith in his blog https://unlockingthebible.org/lifekey/is-repentance-a-command-or-a-gift/ writes “God grants repentance. So you can ask God to give you a contrite heart. You can ask him to change your heart. You can cry out to him “Lord, restore repentance!” This is the promise of the gospel: God will give you a new heart (Ezek. 36:26–27).” Lord may everyone who comes into contact with this blog/prayer be touched and convicted Oh Lord that You are more interested in our spiritual health than we ever could be in this life and from that place of Your shielding us by providing hope in our deepest needs, we can find the grace to draw near and cry out to you for change from bondage and change in the places we still need to change, for the grace and virtue to both love the things you love –which in short is your truth, and righteousness and goodness, and to hate the things you hate, which in short is our sin, the unrighteous acts we have committed, and our proneness to folly. May we be people Oh Lord who prize the Love of Jesus above our highest Joy, and to Love Your righteousness and Goodness Oh Lord above anything this world may have tried to offer us—Psalm 45:7; Heb 1:9; Psalm 97:10. May we wash out our tastebuds and mouth in the milk of Your Word, Oh Lord, and wash our feet as often as we have come into contact with the world, and know that we may be prone to say at times what the lukewarm have said in their folly in Revelation 3:17 saying, “‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’” But (as it says in the Word…) “you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.” Oh Lord!– we ask with one voice Oh Lord, that if this has been so about us, that seeing the reality of it we might be seeking you to do our part in undoing the bondage of the world, and only by Your grace find help to undo our pride, our self-sufficiency, our worldliness and our inordinate loves and that You would do what only You can do! We pray we would be enabled to take off our filthy rags by Your graces, lay them down at the foot of the cross, and put on Christ, (in your armor and in Your Very Sweet Person), and be nourished on the graces of your Word, and find hope in only what Jesus accomplished, and desire the pure milk of the Word, which is able to save and satisfy our souls and grow us up in You Oh Lord! Drain out from us anything worldly, and put in place of it the growth You would desire to see, and fill us with your Spirit, goodness, and truth, Oh Dear Lord! May we truly be done with our sin, and truly make room for You in all the places of our lives we might have held back from You, Oh Lord, we cry out for mercy, growth, cleansing, heart change, and stable progress in You and in all our manner of life Oh Lord! We pray these things for our lives themselves, and for the very lives that you would have us to minister to, as we seek Your abiding presence over those we love, and over those we are called to love, and we seek these things for everyone we are to live out our faith as examples to, and as servants of Yours as we work the field of souls we are called to work for Your Kingdom Oh Dear Lord! Amen! May we access God’s blessings in abundance, and may His grace lavishly cover every need–even those that are not “pretty”, and have no earthly answer! Amen.

Keep growing in the Word! LG