Set the Sail (Preparing for a Move of God) Sample

​​Repentance: Return To Me With All Your Heart

What does the word “repentance” bring to mind for you? Do you think about holier-than-thou Christian sects that hold up picket signs on the street letting people know they are going to hell? Do you think about churches that are far more concerned with judgment than they are with grace? Do you picture a life of morbidity and introspection that leads to doom and gloom?

Repentance often feels like a Christian curse word. It makes us feel terrible.

But is this the way we are supposed to think about repentance?

The prophet Joel lived and prophesied in the southern kingdom of Judah around 8th century B.C. before their neighbours in the North (Israel) were exiled by the meta-empire of Assyria. It was a time of hardship, distress, and religious confusion. Many in Israel and Judah were pursuing and worshiping pagan gods and the wrath of God was drawing near to the city. After warning the wicked and rebellious people through the prophet Joel, God still pleads with them to return:

“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart,” (Joel 2:12a)

Repentance, rather than being a strange religious word is simply a call to come back to God: to return to the One who knows us, loves us, and has redeemed us. Repentance doesn’t make God love us more, repentance is simply an opportunity to experience God’s love in new and fresh ways as we live in ways that are in harmony with his character and our own humanity. Repentance is an invitation to enter into and experience life; it’s an invitation to partner with God to see a fresh move of His Spirit begin in our own hearts. In what ways, like the people of God in the Old Testament, are you living “out of sync” with God’s will? Return home.