It will be a journey, but a person can achieve complete repentance in this life.
It is important to get a bird’s eye view of your life when repenting. To have a perspective of what is going on in your life right now, and what is it that you need to work on? The main work for each of us is to make correction. To start, be honest with yourself, and create a repentance plan you can work on; something to review once in a while. As an example, create two lists. One list is where you are at today, and the other list is what you need to work on. If you don’t know where you are at, you won’t know where you are going. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself.
Where am I at right now?
- If my secrets were exposed, would I be humiliated?
- Why do I desire things I don’t need or even want?
- What do I have to lose by giving up sin?
- What do I have to gain from living a godly life?
The early Christian Fathers insist that God created the world because he “desired” to give. A desire needs no explanation. We desire things we do not need or even want, so while God was not found lacking and wanted for nothing, He desired creation. While you may not be able to understand your desires, you should know that desire, itself, is rooted in God. That’s why its so powerful.
You are not your desires. Understanding this can help you make the choice to place fences between yourself and those things which are desired but destructive. God does not judge you for what you desire but for what you choose.
Let that sink in.
On this second day of repentance, let this be your meditation. Consider how you might build fences for yourself to protect you from desires which are forbidden by scripture. While you may not be able to understand it just yet, recognize that the magnificent power of desire is something rooted in God who has been called a “consuming fire;” recognize that the only way to overcome misdirected desire is to separate from it.
Someone harboring pedophiliac desires should not live near a school, or volunteer to teach children, or watch the child of a friend. By definition a desire is not a choice, but protecting yourself from forbidden desire is. A married woman who desires affirmation from men should protect herself by not participating in unnecessary conversation with them.
You are not your desires! You did not ask for them, but you can protect yourself from them. You did not choose them but you can choose to separate from them.
Where do you need to build a fence?
The first step in repentance is admitting that I need to work on myself, and to define what it is I need to change. Correction is possible when I understand the difference between good and evil, wants and desires. Take time and think about areas where you have allowed yourself to flirt with desire. Start building fences between yourself and those things. Leave the phone out of your bedroom at night. Take a friend with you to pick up a female coworker. Limit yourself to one glass of wine or maybe don’t keep it in the house, this is going to look different for everyone. Write down these commitments and revisit them over the next 12 months.
If you need help, please contact us, we are more than willing to personally help you through this.
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