Jason *over and out*
Confession and Repentance is an interesting idea to me. Confession is verbally saying, “I’ve sinned” to God. “Repentance is turning from that sin and moving 180 degrees in a new direction towards Jesus. And I heard quite a bit about this when I was coming to God and making a decision to follow Him. But once I became a Christian, it was almost taboo in the circles I grew up in. “Yeah, let’s talk about all the ways you’ve screwed up in your life so you can be clean and new in Jesus. BUT, don’t talk about the ways you mess up after you accept Him and become a follower of Him!”
Seriously!? That is not at all what God planned and desired for His people. In Acts 17:28-30 “in Him we live and move and have our being,” but He has called all men, “all people everywhere to repent.” It’s a daily action of committing our lives to Him when we confess of the things we’ve done and repent. When we do this our sins are wiped away, as the Bible makes note of in Acts 3:19, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord…”
Now our sins were payed for when Jesus gave His life as a sacrifice for us on the cross. When that price was paid, it’s by God’s grace (a gift we don’t deserve) that we are entering into heaven when we die. But even though those sins are paid for, God wants to hear from us. He desires to know our hearts and listen to us as we turn daily from the temptations of life and draw closer to Him. Confession and Repentance doesn’t end when we enter into a relationship with God, it begins there. and from that point should become an ongoing discipline to draw near to God.
There are a couple articles here and here that talk about this more.
Prayer to me is so simple, yet so difficult all at the same time. Prayer is a conversation between you and God. We let Him know how much we love Him, confess our sins, ask for forgiveness, ask for patience, wisdom, understanding, faith to make it through, and continue to connect with Him like we do in our other relationships we care so much about.
But to me it started out really difficult because… I couldn’t hear the response! I would pray and pray and talk with God and never hear anything back. The first time I prayed I literally waited for an audible voice. Seriously. I thought God would speak back (like in my head or something) and I would get an answer. Later I came to understand that God wasn’t going to audibly speak to my ears or communicate His response via a plane writing it in the sky… but He was going to answer and He always has.
Here are some scriptures that talk about prayer from God’s perspective: click here. But, in communicating with God- I fell into some traps. I began to pray in big words, use God’s name 85 times in a prayer, pray things I would never say in any other instance… all because that is what I was taught to do. I was taught a formal way to pray and it was the only way according to those teaching me. Much later I learned God cared more about my heart and the real communication we had and not so much about whether I said His name all those times or bowed my head just right with my hands in the right position.
Now, when I sometimes revert back to those things, I believe God still knows my heart now. And as you begin to talk to God and build that daily relationship with Him- He’ll see your heart too. And if you say things differently than someone else or talk to God in a more relaxed way… I believe He is excited because you are simply bringing yourself into community with Him.
And, prayer is powerful. There is no doubt about that in my mind. In James 5:16 we hear this message loud and clear: “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.“ Powerful and effective. When we drop all the chaos going on around us and pray to God and talk to Him about life, joys, sorrows, sins, intervene on someone’s behalf, and more- God shows up and does what only He can do… and it’s amazing.
We’re in this series, “Commercial Genius” and last week we talked about spiritual disciplines. These are not stars on a checklist that get us into heaven- instead, they are practical things we can do to foster a deeper and more intimate relationship with God. We’ll be posting a handful of different links, ideas, etc. for you to begin the process for the first time or maybe you’ve tried, but you want to cultivate it more and draw closer to God.
At any rate, there are quite a few different spiritual disciplines- but let’s look at “Fasting.” Fasting is simply abstaining from food, or food and drink, for spiritual purposes. Fasting is more than a diet adjustment; it involves spiritual intensity and intercession. Fasting should always be accompanied with prayer, meditation, and Bible study. Fasting was practiced throughout the Bible by kind of a Who’s Who of leaders- Moses who led the Israelites, David the king, Elijah the prophet, Esther the queen, Daniel the advisor to kings, Anna the prophetess, Paul the apostle, and Jesus Christ, just to name a few.
Here is a great link on how to fast properly, so as to not hurt your system/body: click here. But also, you need to look into and evaluate your reason for fasting. Is it to have people know you’re doing it? Bad reason. Is it to “feel better” about yourself and cross it off your Christian to-do list? Bad reason. Is it to deny yourself things so you can listen to God and hear His heart & will for you? GREAT reason.
God wants to have a close relationship with us, and when we practice spiritual disciplines- we begin to understand God’s heart more clearly. And that is a great thing. Here is a list of passages in the Bible that discuss fasting to help you in learning more about this: click here
A couple of weeks ago Carrie and I celebrated the 1 year birthday of our beautiful daughter, Chloe. One year after becoming a parent I realize- I know nothing about being a parent. I do know a few things though:
What have you learned from being a parent?
If you lead kids/students, what have you learned from it?
Been going through the message for Sunday on Spiritual Disciplines. Our S.D.’s are an avenue to point us towards God, grow closer to Him, understand His heart, will & plan for our lives. One of the things we’ll be discussing Sunday is “Fasting.” Fasting is abstaining from food, or food and drink, for spiritual purposes. While doing the fast, you use prayer, bible reading, and meditation to draw close to God. You can also fast from things like TV, Social Media, Sports, etc. But Sunday we’re looking strictly at the biblical example of food and/or drink fasting.
A quote from Richard Foster has been resonating in my head for the last week and a half. Love to hear your thoughts.
“Fasting reminds us that we are sustained ‘by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God’ (Matt. 4:4). Food does not sustain us; God sustains us.“
Have you ever fasted before?
What was it like for you to fast?
How did it help you draw close to God?
Sharing some from my daily reading, here are some thoughts from today’s passage…
Have you ever written a letter, had a conversation, or intervened when you saw someone was moving in the wrong direction? I’ve been the intervene’r and the intervene’ee, and it’s tough no matter how you slice it. But, Paul in this passage talks about his letter to the church at Corinth and how he’s sorry it brought them pain, but not really.
Verses 8-13 note Paul’s pain in bringing them sorrow, but that Godly sorrow leads to repentance which leads to salvation- which leaves no regret. Then Paul throws another route in the scenario. He basically shares, “By pointing out the places you need to change, it will bring sorrow. But, is it a Godly sorrow or a worldly sorrow?” Because unlike Godly sorrow; worldly sorrow “leads to death.”
Paul’s hurting for them because of the letter was momentary, “Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance.” It was momentary because of the end result. Paul found joy in the end. “Now I am happy,” he said. He was joyful because the sorrow led to repentance. A change of heart. A prompting to move closer to God and leave those things behind.
When was the last time you saw someone falling, hurting, in pain, and moving away from God? Have you built a relationship with them? Does it burden your heart to see them in that situation? Does your heart break with the same things that break God’s heart? Because God’s message of love and life change should be shared with them, so they can see God, see themselves for who they are, and through their sorrow, let go of those things and draw near to Him.
