As I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm reading Larry Crabb's Inside Out. I wanted to share with you some really rich passages about what it means to repent, and how repentance changes the way we relate to God and others. Crabb looks at Hosea 14:1-3 for instruction:
"The key to all change is returning to God. Christ defined eternal life as knowing God (John 17:3), and by His atoning death made it possible for sinful people to be restored to relationship with God. Growth in the Christian life means coming to know God better. Every effort to change must involve at its core a shift in direction away from dependence on one's own resource for life to dependence on God..." p. 211
"So many of our efforts to change have a hidden but definite agenda. The motivation to work on our life is usually sustained by the hope that difficult circumstances will improve and painful feelings will go away... True repentance, on the other hand, is energized by the hope of knowing and worshipping God more richly." p. 212
Repentance is hard. Even when I understand it correctly, I don't particularly like it. It feels like work, or performance, or striving. But it seems to me that, if we are to take Crabb's reading of Scripture seriously, repentance isn't really about trying harder. It's about leaning into God more closely, asking Him to be more to us and in us. If our lives are to be lived in dependence on God, can we rely on Him for a repentant spirit, too?
Mark Upton from Hope Community Church says, "Repentance is not running away from sin, but running into Jesus." I love that image. He also talks about repentance looking like this scene from Lord of the Rings.
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