Repentance

     The Christian life is built upon the foundation of repentance--a genuine change of mind that results in a genuine change of lifestyle.  It is a definite decision to quit thinking the way the world thinks and to think as God thinks about the world and myself.  It begins by my rejecting the world's view that if I do the best I can, God will let me into Heaven.  In fact, if He's a loving God, He'll have to let me into Heaven.  I accept the reality that it is not God and His love that are on trial but me.  God's love was eternally demonstrated on the cross.  I must embrace that love by admitting that my sins made it necessary for such a sacrifice to be made.  And I must embrace the fact that there is absolutely nothing I can add to make that sacrifice efficacious.  His sinless life and atoning death alone paid for my sins.
     And my Christian life matures as I continue to repent of the world's way of thinking and decide to wholeheartedly accept God's way of thinking.  I refuse to accept the world's premise that it's all about me and desire rather that my life be all about Him.  I determine through His empowering grace to deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Him continually.  In addition, I refuse to accept the world's view that material goods and financial security are vital to human happiness and contentment.  I believe instead that whatever I have is more than enough because I have Him.  The only advantage to having stuff is that I can redeem it by investing it in fellow kingdom members' needs and the needs of the poor in my community and around the world.  I can offer my stuff as a sacrifice to Him.  I also reject the world's view that I can make it on my own, and so I view my dependence on other believers as a strength necessary for Christian maturity.  I rest in the grace supplied for me by the Christian community and Christian friends and family.  I even reject  the world's perspective that I am called to make the world a better place, to somehow change my culture for the better. I embrace instead God's view that I am called to love Him whatever the world looks like, whatever my culture values, even if it doesn't have a single value consistent with His truth.  I embrace instead the necessity of loving my neighbor as myself, of being sure that no matter how they react to that love, I will keep loving them.  And I will change my view about suffering.  I will not see it as the world does, as proof that God does not exist or if He does, that He is either not in control of that He is evil instead of good.  But I will see it as it actually is--undeniable evidence that He is broken-hearted over a sin-filled world and desirous that all men would seek Him.
     The deeper my life in Christ becomes the more I will see the flaws in my way of thinking, the ideas that I have that are influenced by the world and its attitudes.  And the more readily I will repent--change my mind about those views--and surrender to the Holy Spirit so that He can change the way I love.