Matthew 3:2
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
I love that command! John the Baptist is exhorting his countrymen to “Clean up your act! God’s kingdom is close by.” Or, stated another way, “Stop messing up! The thing you’ve been waiting your whole life for is coming —and is very near!”
The goal of these 40 days of preparation is to get ourselves cleaned up, to rid ourselves from any sin or disobedience that would keep us from being in a super tight relationship with God and anything that would hinder us from allowing the Holy Spirit flow through us with His full power. Hebrews 12:1 tells us to “throw aside every weight, & the sin that so easily ensnares us” so we can run the race God has set before us without being burdened by anything to drag us down.
Like a surfer who works hard to paddle to and position himself at the ideal spot in the ocean to catch the oncoming powerful wave, we, too, need to position ourselves to be able to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s power to flow through us — and it starts with repentance and confession.
Repentance is more than just feeling sorry for our wrongdoings; true repentance involves a change of heart and mind, leading to transformed behavior. If repentance is the actual act of turning around from the things that lead us away from our fullness in Christ, then confession is the declaration, the admission, of what we are doing that needs redirection. There is no repentance without confession. It’s too easy to just say ‘God, forgive me for all the things I’ve done that You don’t like.’ By generalizing I’m not actually taking responsibility for my specific actions or disobediences. We need to be responsible for & accountable for our sins.
I John 1:19 says, “If we confess our sins, He [God] is faithful & just to forgive us our sins & to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It’s that cleansing that removes the barrier between you and God so that you can renew a tight relationship with the one supreme source of love & power. You probably already know of things that you’re holding onto that displeases Him (the Holy Spirit has a knack of calling them to mind). God says, ‘Give those to Me. I’ll take those from you & will fill you with something much better, much more powerful.’ Telling God what those things are is confession. Turning away from them is repentance.
While confessing our sins to God is fantastic, the Bible encourages us to take it one step further. James 5:16 tells us to “Confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” We are actually encouraged to tell our sins to another trusted person! (Use wisdom in choosing whom to trust.) That sounds embarrassing. Why would God want me to do that? For several reasons: First, He said so. Also, it breaks our pride, makes us humble and it’s no longer a secret. Sin isolates, but confession brings it out into the light to be eliminated. It keeps us from deceiving ourselves. And our friend has been given the authority to administer forgiveness.
It’s these acts of confession that break the power of sin over us & liberates us from its destructive power over us. We turn from darkness & toward freedom & joy —that’s the act of repentance.
We so want to serve God with all our heart, to be filled with His glory, to hear His voice, to be His powerful conduit of heaven’s love. Confession & repentance helps paddle us into position to catch the wave of the Holy Spirit so we can experience the ride of a lifetime.
This week is concentrating on tightening our relationship with God to allow the Holy Spirit to flow powerfully through us. It’ll be a week of breakthrough and power. See you tomorrow!
Listening Prayer: The Holy Spirit is revealing to you thoughts, actions, disobediences that He wants you to turn away from. Take time to listen to Him. Confess those to Him. Ask the Holy Spirit if there are other areas that need to be revealed and confess those.
Prayer: Dear Lord, I do not want to have anything hindering my relationship with You. Reveal to me all the ways I am disobedient to you, and all the things I’m holding that puts a hindrance between us. [Confess those things to the Lord.] Lord, I repent of these things and ask for Your forgiveness. Give me the strength to turn around and put those things away from me forever. Thank you, merciful Lord. Amen.
Resources: Bible Verses on Repentance and Confession
Repent
Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Acts 3:19 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out.”
Luke 13:3 “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
Hebrews 12:1 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…”
Colossians 3:2, 5, 8–10 “2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.…5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil
desires and greed, which is idolatry.… 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
Confess
I John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
James 5:16 “Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
Worship Songs: