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How to Repent...Part 2

Repentance that Increases your faith: Continually work with your heart to prepare yourself for greater faith and your behavior will steadily improve!

Your repentance has to improve your faith about why you can turn draw near and "drink" from God rather than from earthly things. Doing so, will steadily improve your behavior because you won't be so dependent on earthly ways of feeding yourself. You will find a steady increase in your freedom to turn, draw near to God, and love Him more fully! Greater faith about why you can repent from earthly sources will let you turn with great joy and expectation.

A Joyous kind of Repentance that focuses on Faith Rather than Behavior!

Faith directly affects our obedience—it is, "...the obedience of faith..." (Rom. 1:5).But common among Christians today is that we think we have to apply our effort directly to our behavior in order to obey better. In other words, we think we have to try harder in order to do the right thing.

One problem with this approach is that it doesn’t take your fears into account. What if your fears are so great that you find it difficult to obey? In that case it may be that your fears will win and you will hold back. It is better to focus on your faith because the apostle Paul wrote,

"Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested...leading to obedience of faith" (Rom. 16:25,26).

Paul understood the ultimate goal of the gospel as that of leading people to obedience resulting from faith. The way I see it, much of the gospel remains a mystery to many of us Christians because think the pressure is on us for obedience—when it isn’t. Obedience is of vital importance, but if there is any pressure on us it is that we should believe.

In order for you to repent with effectiveness you are going to have to change your focus—off your behavior directly and onto what would make it possible for greater obedience in your turning to God. When you improve your believing—so as to decrease your fears—you also increase your likelihood of being more obedient toward God and of drawing near to Him. Obedience is made possible by our faith.

Now, don’t get me wrong. An improvement in our behavior that shows up as obedience is the goal. We must act on the truth: "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock." (Matthew 7:24). I am only saying that you will find it much easier to act on the truth after you have "dug deep" enough to let your heart hear God’s words.

Don’t think about trying to improve your "spirituality" by thinking about it strictly as obedience. If you do you won’t grow very fast. Delight toward God is far more effective at helping you repent and turn to God. Getting frustrated with yourself and disciplining yourself more to stop living according to the "flesh" just doesn’t work very well. The many ways we tend to live apart from God and far are too deeply ingrained. Most of the time, we are off and running apart from faith, long before we even realize what we are doing. Rather than improving our obedience directly, you have to grow toward God according to faith in His grace.

Prepare Your Heart for Faith

We have to apply our effort toward believing and having faith—but not on having faith directly. Faith is a gift from God. The Bible says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast" (Eph. 2:8,9).

We were saved by faith—it was not because we earned it. In the same way, faith is not something we can achieve either—it is a gift given freely to us by God. It is a gift that God doesn’t hesitate to give. Rather than working yourself up to believing, faith is something you have to rest into. God gives you faith the moment you give up and submit to what is the truth. Resting into faith is like finally admitting you are tired and resting down into a big chair.

Getting your heart to hear is hard work. But effort applied to believing is not "works." Effort toward believing is not "works" as long as your effort is aimed at getting your heart to hear and submit to the truth.

When you read your Bible is your aim to increase your knowledge and understanding? Doing so is not enough. You should be reading your Bible with a heart that is strongly intent on hearing and believing what you read. It is not a passive activity to be, "...building yourselves up on your most holy faith..." (Jude 1:20).

We need to stand up for what we believe, to other people, to ourselves. Your attitude—especially with yourself—should be to, "Fight the good fight of faith..." (1 Tim. 6:12). You should be, "...applying all diligence, in your faith..." (1 Peter 1:5).Let me quote again where Paul said, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth" (1 Cor. 3:6). Planting and watering is hard work. You just have to aim your effort toward planting more of the truth in your heart—with an attitude to believe it.

Please note: You can affect the quality of your faith, but faith can’t be your focus because faith is a gift from God. Your focus has to be on your receptivity to the truth and on planting more of the word of God into your heart. Your focus can’t be on having faith directly.

Jesus gave a parable about seed being sown on the ground. It is generally understood as talking about the receptivity different people have to the word of God for salvation. But, the parable has direct application to our discussion about repentance. It applies to us—after salvation—because it is talking about how we can produce fruit for God.

In the parable the seed being planted is the word of God. The person doing the planting is people like you and I. The ground represents hearts of people. Applied to our growth after salvation, you and I are the ones who should be sowing seed on the soil of our own heart. The word of God is important for salvation. But it is just as important to our continued growth after salvation. If you want more growth, sow more seed. You can also till the soil of your heart so that you become better able to hear.

Farmers work hard to till the soil. We should do the same so that our heart becomes good ground. Do you want to make an impact for God? Sowing more seed into your heart and improving your receptivity to the truth is what will help you toward producing "100 fold."

It is by working to improve your receptivity to believing the truth—and by planting more of God’s word—that you can affect your faith. Doing so, should be a central part in how you live your Christian life.

Our part is to increase our freedom to take God at His word and believe. God’s part is to give us faith. He does that without hesitation the moment you are able to receive it. It will help you greatly to keep your focus on improving what you believe. But doing so does not mean you can compare yourself to others who are struggling. That exalts you, puts them down, and keeps both of you away from God. The Bible says, "And have mercy on some, who are doubting" (Jude 1:22).

Be patient toward others in regard to their faith, but you dare not be lazy toward yourself.

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I am praying for the Lord's abundant blessing on your efforts to direct your heart toward Him.

Barry.

   How to Repent — Continued...

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(C) Barry Hall 1999

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