Chrysostom
Beloved of All
When God in His mercy reveals an area of rebellion or disobedience in your life, that very revealing is an act of His love and patience. As He did with Judah through Ezekiel, He does not leave you in spiritual blindness but explains what His word and His dealings mean, so that you may understand and turn back to Him. The right response is not to hide, to excuse, or to ask Him to bless what He calls sin, but to answer with humility and repentance.
Scripture shows that humility is the groundwork of all that is good. God will not despise a broken and contrite heart. To respond well, come before Him honestly, acknowledging that you have heard His voice and that you need His mercy. This is not a vague sorrow, but a godly sorrow. Godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation and brings no regret, because it leads to real change. There is another kind of sorrow that is only tears and regret and leaves the heart unchanged. Esau sought the blessing with tears but found no place of true repentance, for his heart still planned to do evil. True repentance is proved by turning away from the sin and turning toward God.
That turning is always toward Christ. There is forgiveness only through Jesus Christ alone, who reconciles the rebellious to God through His sacrifice. Even if you have fallen deeply, repentance still has great force and is able to set you free and establish you in safety if you will lay hold of it. Christ can be formed in you again. The Church is like a spiritual bath that washes not the body but the stains of the soul through the many ways of repentance God has given.
So when He shows you rebellion, respond in this way. First, listen and seek spiritual understanding instead of hardening your heart as Capernaum did. Ask Him to open your eyes to His hand in your life. Second, confess the specific sin plainly without minimizing it, whether it is pride, materialism, comfort seeking, or sexual sin outside the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman where alone God has placed sexual union and living together. Do not ask God to affirm or bless what is contrary to His word, but ask Him to forgive and to lead you out of it. Third, forsake it. Repentance means a change of mind that leads to a change of direction, by His grace. Fourth, walk out that repentance with the remedies God has marked out: sincere prayer, compunction of heart, humility, thanksgiving in all things, fasting according to your strength, and mercy toward others, including forgiving those who have wronged you.
He is sovereign over all history and over your personal history, and His discipline, though painful, is meant to bring restoration, not to cast you away forever.
A prayer for you:
Heavenly Father, thank You for not leaving us in our rebellion but for revealing it so we may live. Give us a humble and contrite heart that You will not despise. Grant us godly sorrow that works true repentance unto salvation. Forgive us through the blood of Jesus Christ alone, who is the Word of God and the Bread of Heaven, and form Christ anew in us. By Your Holy Spirit, show us any idols of pride, comfort, or impurity that have captured our hearts, and give us strength to relinquish them and to walk in Your ways. Teach us to trust Your sovereign hand and to live lives that reflect Your glory. Make our paths straight as we turn to You. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
Scripture shows that humility is the groundwork of all that is good. God will not despise a broken and contrite heart. To respond well, come before Him honestly, acknowledging that you have heard His voice and that you need His mercy. This is not a vague sorrow, but a godly sorrow. Godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation and brings no regret, because it leads to real change. There is another kind of sorrow that is only tears and regret and leaves the heart unchanged. Esau sought the blessing with tears but found no place of true repentance, for his heart still planned to do evil. True repentance is proved by turning away from the sin and turning toward God.
That turning is always toward Christ. There is forgiveness only through Jesus Christ alone, who reconciles the rebellious to God through His sacrifice. Even if you have fallen deeply, repentance still has great force and is able to set you free and establish you in safety if you will lay hold of it. Christ can be formed in you again. The Church is like a spiritual bath that washes not the body but the stains of the soul through the many ways of repentance God has given.
So when He shows you rebellion, respond in this way. First, listen and seek spiritual understanding instead of hardening your heart as Capernaum did. Ask Him to open your eyes to His hand in your life. Second, confess the specific sin plainly without minimizing it, whether it is pride, materialism, comfort seeking, or sexual sin outside the lifelong covenant of one man and one woman where alone God has placed sexual union and living together. Do not ask God to affirm or bless what is contrary to His word, but ask Him to forgive and to lead you out of it. Third, forsake it. Repentance means a change of mind that leads to a change of direction, by His grace. Fourth, walk out that repentance with the remedies God has marked out: sincere prayer, compunction of heart, humility, thanksgiving in all things, fasting according to your strength, and mercy toward others, including forgiving those who have wronged you.
He is sovereign over all history and over your personal history, and His discipline, though painful, is meant to bring restoration, not to cast you away forever.
A prayer for you:
Heavenly Father, thank You for not leaving us in our rebellion but for revealing it so we may live. Give us a humble and contrite heart that You will not despise. Grant us godly sorrow that works true repentance unto salvation. Forgive us through the blood of Jesus Christ alone, who is the Word of God and the Bread of Heaven, and form Christ anew in us. By Your Holy Spirit, show us any idols of pride, comfort, or impurity that have captured our hearts, and give us strength to relinquish them and to walk in Your ways. Teach us to trust Your sovereign hand and to live lives that reflect Your glory. Make our paths straight as we turn to You. In the precious name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
