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The Christian life can be summed up in these three words that Jesus used often:
Repent and believe.
Turn from your sin and believe the truth of God.
This will take humility.
In my experience, the word humility usually involves a bit of humiliation.
I let that humiliation flood over me. It leads to repentance. Followed by forgiveness. The shame that I’d been feeling that inevitably had affected me and everyone around me is washed away by the waves of grace.
This grace brings connection again. It is a deep, honest, sincere in-my-soul kind of connection with God, because I need Him again and I’m close to Him again and we’re right.
But it costs me something to get there.
If the goal of our lives is intimacy with Jesus, then the pathway to that intimacy is vulnerably needing Him—bringing Him the things we most want to hide from Him.
But Jesus’ identity drove His humility. He wasn’t grasping for anything—He had nothing to prove. He was secure enough to face humiliation for these men, and eventually for the whole world, hours later on a cross.
True faith leads us to repentance. The power of repentance is the death it contains. Freedom doesn’t come without death. Happiness doesn’t come without dirt. And singing only comes after the mourning.
The upper room is the story of this backward way.
We risk our dirt because Jesus has the power to wash it and we no longer want to be in bondage to it. We want to see revival happen in our places; we want to see God move in the souls of people around us. Yes? We want that.
It starts with us. If we don’t experience His forgiveness and His grace on a regular basis, then how could we give away His forgiveness and grace to anybody else?
Authenticity is the necessary soil for repentance, but if healing comes from Jesus, then confession is only the first step.
Grieving and leaving our sin is the next one.
What makes us clean? His blood makes us clean.
Jesus was clear, only those who accept His cleansing will become a part of Him. Only those who are willing to confess, repent, expose their sin, and receive His forgiveness will have eternal life.
What do you need to confess to Him today?
About this Plan
Too many of us walk through life feeling as if we don't measure up. We always seem to thirst for more. We think if we could only work harder or be better, we could be enough. But the truth is, we will never be enough. And thankfully, we don't have to be. In Proven, Jennie Allen walks through the Book of John to demonstrate how only Jesus is enough.
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