Therefore this is what the Lord says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.”
Jeremiah 15:19
Dear HBIC Family,
I have been thinking this week about how my knowledge of repentance was very limited growing up. I understood that, because we sin and fall short, we needed Jesus, who came to be our Savior. I understood that the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and calls us back to God. I also understood that repentance required me to ask God for forgiveness. My bottom-line understanding growing up in the faith was that we need Jesus because we fall short, we need Jesus for forgiveness of our sins, and we need Jesus to be washed clean.
However, as we look at repentance in both the Old and New Testaments, we see that repentance is not simply about what God does for us. Repentance is also not only about us asking for and receiving forgiveness. Repentance is confession and prayer as well as vulnerability before God and trust in God. And repentance is about not only asking for forgiveness of sin, but turning away from sin. The turning away part is our work too, and something that I believe we should lean into this Lenten season.
This week we will be continuing our Walking with God: A Journey Through Lent series by looking at Jeremiah 15 and focusing on how God calls us as individuals and as a community to turn back to him, to serve him, and to have our lives speak for him. To prepare for this week’s service, I would like to invite you to read and meditate on Jeremiah 15:15-21. As you reflect, I would like to ask you to focus on the following questions:
How do you understand repentance?
How has your understanding of repentance changed over the years?
Have you seen fruit for blessing from your repentance before God?
How is God currently calling you back to him?
One of my favorite ways to explain repentance is this: acknowledging wrong, asking for forgiveness, and then turning away from sin and towards God. Jeremiah’s story is filled with God using him to call the people to repentance. This made Jeremiah not only the weeping prophet, but the lonely prophet who sometimes felt forsaken. This week we will look at God meeting Jeremiah at his lowest and lifting him to where God desired him to be.
Praise God our Father who loves and forgives us. Praise Jesus who came and lives to be our Savior. And praise the Holy Spirit, who calls us back to God. Sisters and brothers, may we live lives of repentance, for the kingdom of God is at hand!
God bless you all, and take care.
Love in Christ,
Pastor Hank (Jeremiah 15:19)