Repentance: An Invitation to RestSample

Eager in Waiting

Repentance.

This word often comes with a negative connotation when we think we have to claw our way back to a righteous standing with God, as if we could earn His love.

But a better understanding of repentance is a turning back to God, reveling in His mercy and grace. Knowing that God is our Father, our Creator, who loves us and wants what is best for us… repentance is a ceasing of striving, a loosening of the death grip we have on having it our own way, a collapsing into His everlasting arms, an entrance into His glorious rest.

He waits—eagerly waits—for us to turn… to look around and notice we’ve ventured off the path to life, and are sowing our own destruction.

Jesus gives us this picture in the parable of the Prodigal Son: “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” —Luke 15:20 NKJV

In His eagerness, God keeps the path to Him ever near us; we simply have to turn our steps toward Him right where we are.

And when we turn, He runs to us and welcomes us back into His fellowship.

Reflection

How far off the path have you walked from God?

No matter how far you’ve strayed, He has pursued you and made His path available with your next step. What is your next step onto His path?

Read Luke 15:32. Every time you return to God, He exclaims, “It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for [you were] dead and [are] alive again, [were] lost and now [are] found.” NKJV