The Necessary Step

• How easy is it to repent?

• How can you make repentance sound appealing when you share your faith with someone?

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Acts 2:38

“Repent and be baptized.” That sounds a like a pretty quick path to launching your Christian life, doesn’t it? One, two, and you’re on the way, right? Not so fast.

The baptism part is pretty straightforward—extremely meaningful and important, but straightforward. The repentance part, though, requires a little more effort—emotionally painful effort.

Repenting of our sins means taking a hard look at areas of our lives we may be uncomfortable with. To repent means to sort through the ugly incidents in our past. It means to face up to certain habits or addictions we would rather ignore. It means to expose to God everything we try to keep hidden from other people.

Repenting of our sins means seeing ourselves as God sees us, not as we would like to see ourselves. It means we recognize we’re polluted with sin and helpless to save ourselves, a dangerous combination. It means we realize our only hope for salvation is Jesus. It means we ask God to forgive us for the mess we’ve made of our life.

That’s repentance. And it’s followed immediately by celebration because God promises that if we will repent, he will forgive.

PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for not punishing us immediately for our sins. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to repent. Work in our hearts to let us know when more repentance is necessary. Amen.