The
God’s calling for repentance is the calling for us to live in truth and in the
righteous path since no man is born perfect; everyone is born as a sinner. When
God calls us to repent, God wants us to acknowledge His truth and to take
responsibility of our sins; however, repentance is a decision for us to make.
When God confronts us with His truth we only have two options with the first
one being “I must” where we cover up the truth with our religion such that we can
pay for our sins by doing something else that will please God such as
pilgrimage or prayer and excuse ourselves from repenting. The second option is
“I can’t” where we bluntly reject the truth with many kinds of reasons. On the
other hand, God wants us to acknowledge his truth and take responsibility for
our own sins without making excuses or compromising; therefore, for us to truly
repent, faith is necessary since faith will enable us to walk in repentance.
Faith is trusting God to fill our repentance with his mercy and grace. To have
faith, we need to first ask God for His revelation because faith comes by
revelation as said in Romans 10: 17; then, we should make God’s revelation as
our conviction which will be manifested in our actions.
In
the world today, people tend not to repent from their sins. Some choose the “I
must” way and cover their sins with religions, and others choosing the “I
can’t” way deciding to not accept the truth and bluntly reject the truth.
Without repentance, the sins will keep on growing and multiplying which will
one day lead to fall.
For
the people to repent, they should first understand by reading God’s Word that
the only way to repentance is through faith where we trust God’s grace and
mercy. They should first ask God for His revelation and make it as their
conviction allowing it to be expressed in their actions. Those who choose the
“I must” way should realize that God have shown us mercy through the death of
Jesus who wash away the sins of the world. People should understand that they
didn’t have to pay for their sins through any kind of way trusting God’s mercy
through the death of Jesus; instead, we should acknowledge and be responsible
for our sins. Similarly, those who choose the “I can’t” way should realize that
God have shown us grace through the resurrection of Jesus after His death on
the cross. Grace is God’s empowering and ability to do His Will; therefore, no
matter how deep is sour sin, God will be able to help us to repent to the
righteous path.
Personally,
today I still have a greater tendency to live in the “I must” way where I cover
up the truth by doing something else for God to excuse myself from repentance.
I always think that, I can pay for my sins that I have commit through the act
of confession according to the Catholic teaching. With this mindset in me, I
thought that I don’t need to repent from my sins since I can pay for it myself.
This mindset causes me to repeat the same sins over and over again. Now I
understand that my way of thought is not right and that I viewed the act of
Catholic confession wrongly. The act confession can be the means for me to
repent from our sins and accepting that I’m wrong; nonetheless, it does not
mean that I am allowed to repeat my sins again after the confessions. Hebrews
10: 26-27 says that when we know the truth and violates it, it will be a
definite big sin. I understand that there is nothing that I should do to pay
for my sins, but trusting God’s mercy upon me, acknowledge the truth my sins,
and repent with my faith.
As a
conclusion, God calls us to repent when He confronts us with His truth. Many
people have two option of responding to God’s calling of repentance which are
“I must” or “I can’t”. Nowadays people tend not to repent allowing their sins
to grow and multiply which will one day lead them to fall. For the people to repent
they should first understand through reading God’s Word that faith is necessary
in repentance; we need to trust God’s grace and mercy. To have a strong faith,
we need to ask revelation from God and make it as our conviction that will be
manifested in our action. No matter how sinful we are, God will always welcome
us if when we want to truly repent. 1 John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins
to God, He will forgive our sins cleaning us from all unrighteousness.
Repentance will enable is to walk the path of righteousness and we will be
blessed in our life.