For the longest time the word repentance felt scary and kind of… dirty. It was a word that elicited feelings of condemnation. But recently, through the words of a wise woman, I was given a new way to see repentance.
“I haven’t come to call the righteous; I’m calling sinners to repentance.” Luke 5:32 (NTE)
In a conversation with a spiritually mature and intelligent woman, a woman who could see that the word repent wasn’t impacting me in the way it should, I was redirected, and given rather than condemnation, conviction.
Repent isn’t ‘I am bad and I am wrong’. Instead it is ‘God I see that I am out of alignment, guide me to get in alignment with you’.
Imagine yourself as a child playing follow the leader. The world is beautiful and there are tempting things all around us, its easy to get off track. Now imagine you hear the person you are following calling out your name. You look up and you realise you aren’t following anymore. Your leader isn’t angry, they aren’t condemning you, they are just drawing your attention to where you are, and where you need to be in order to get where you are wanting to go.
Chances are you know all of this already. But for me the simple act of being able to say ‘God help me get in alignment with you’ rather than ‘I repent’ created a mindset shift that really blessed me, and maybe it will bless you too.
Karla Rose