Repentance

While I am in between series, I wanted to post something very practical and very open. I wanted to testify to a problem and battle we all have on a daily basis because of the disease of sin in our hearts: how to repent.

I play in a couple of YMCA basketball leagues to remain active and healthy. And let’s be real, I still want to dominate other people in basketball (however it doesn’t happen nearly as often). The other day, I about got beat up by a team of firemen due to my sin. I blew up against another player who I felt intentionally and nastily fouled me. The situation escalated to where a couple of technical fouls were given. To the honest and average observer, nobody was in the right.

After we cooled down, you could sense the tension in the air that comes when everybody realizes what had taken place was foolish.

This is common. We mess up. We sin. But the commonality of a Christian sinning never makes the next sin any less harmful or devastating. By experience, we know that sin always leaves a stain.

So, what was I to do? What are we to do, as Christians, when we sin? Specifically, what do we do when the sin is public and casts a certain light in another person’s eye about your life? Well, I believe most of you understand confession to God and repentance before him, and furthermore I believe you understand the truth of 1 John 1:9 “if we confess our sins, He will be faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

But I want to give you two ways that God can use our repentance in the relationships with those closest to us. 1) God keeps us humble through our public confession and 2) God uses our public repentance to point others to the need of a Savior.

In my own life, after I blew up on the court, it flat out embarrassed me to admit I was wrong before my teammates and the other team. I could go on how God humiliated my pride through this, but let it suffice to say that it was evident that I need a Savior. Secondly, I was able to talk to a good friend a week after the game about how I had to pray and trust God in order to keep patient on the basketball floor in the next game. I was able to practically show him how trust in God works to defeat everyday sin in our hearts.

Praise be to God that he works for his purposes even in our sin!