Repentance: Turning Away

Humbling ourselves isn’t as easy as it seems. Especially in societies such as ours where the freedom to believe and to do as we see fit in our own minds is so prevalent. These freedoms can rule our most basic of decisions and can cause us to rationalize behaviors that are unpleasing to God. Humility, requires us to set aside opinions of our self-worth and selfish desires. It means to be fully submissive to God. This allows us to be in a position to pray. We may then communicate with God making our petitions known and building our faith in Him. We are also to seek God’s face. Picture yourself as lost and alone in a crowd urgently seeking the one face that is intimately identifiable to you. God desires “His people” to know Him. To know Him we must submit ourselves to reading and understanding His Word and spending time with Him. It is though reading His Word that God reveals Himself to us. It is through His Word that we become aware of what is pleasing and unpleasing to the Lord. Otherwise how would it be possible for us to understand what it means “to turn from our wicked ways”? Having our own needs and desires met becomes secondary to obeying God. It isn’t enough to be sorry for our sins. We must honestly understand as much as it is humanly possible how it grieves the heart of God when we disobey Him. Therefore we commit ourselves to “turn from our wicked ways” the ways of man turn to the ways of God.