Fervent Prayer: Repentance
The practice of repentance is a central discipline of the Christian life. One of the most consistent messages of Jesus Christ throughout His ministry was to call people to repentance. In fact, imploring people to “repent or perish”. As followers of Christ this isn’t an odd call because to come to our salvation one of our first acts of faith was to repent, but so often we do not make the act of repentance a consistent discipline of our Christian walk, which is a pity...
"As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter."
2 Corinthians 7:9-11
The practice of repentance is a central discipline of the Christian life. One of the most consistent messages of Jesus Christ throughout His ministry was to call people to repentance. (Matthew 4:17). In fact, imploring people to “repent or perish” (Luke 13). As followers of Christ this isn’t an odd call because to come to our salvation one of our first acts of faith was to repent, but so often we do not make the act of repentance a consistent discipline of our Christian walk, which is a pity. In the same way greater victory is discovered in repentance at that moment when we come to Christ, victory can be found in the practice of daily examination and repentance.
Interestingly, Jonathan Edwards, who was the catalyst of the Great Awakening in the United States, established a list of seventy resolutions that aided his spiritual discipline. In resolution 37, he "Resolved, to inquire every night, as I am going to bed, wherein I have been negligent, what sin I have committed, and wherein I have denied myself: also at the end of every week, month and year." Undoubtedly this consistent practice of self examination and repentance was a key to his spiritual growth.
During this week of prayer I would encourage you to pray prayers of repentance. There is no better example than David’s prayer in Psalm 51:
"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." Psalms 51:1-7
Fervent Prayer Week: Led to Repentance
Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Romans 2:3-4
Fervent: A Prayer of Repentance
"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8 The claim to be without sin is self deception. And the reason we are so deceived is that the truth has found no place in us. When a person is converted, the truth takes up residence in the heart. Or we could say the light of God comes into the heart. And what John says here is not that it immediately drives out all falsehood and sin. That is a battle that lasts a lifetime. What he says is that when the truth enters in, its light reveals sin! The mark of the saint is not sinlessness but sin-consciousness! The evidence of indwelling truth is the exposure of error. The dawning of God's light in the heart is the revelation of remaining darkness. In this life we never get beyond the awareness of remaining sin. Therefore one of the great signs of maturity in Christ is a deep and abiding brokenness for sin. There is much talk today about esteeming ourselves as new creatures in Christ. And so we are. But our newness consists in this: that the true light is shining in our hearts revealing the dreadfulness of our remaining sin and the abundance of God's grace. Our great joy is that our sin is forgiven in Christ. And our great grief is that so much of this very sin remains and defiles. The mark of the new creature in Christ is not a rosy self-concept. It is brokenness for remaining sin mingled with a joyful confidence in the superabounding grace of God in Christ. Jonathan Edwards writes of status in Christ like this: All gracious affections, which are a sweet odour to Christ, filling the soul of a Christian with a heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are broken-hearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is an humble broken-hearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires; their hope is an humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is an humble, broken-hearted joy, leaving the Christian more poor in spirit, more like a little child, and more disposed to an universal lowliness of behaviour. The greatness of this passage is that it leads us to a place of repentance and restoration: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. May we practice confession and repentance walking in the light of Christ.