No obstacles

I dread the hygienist. As I walked into the waiting-room, I asked myself why I was paying for the privilege of the experience. I could have had a spa day or a meal out instead. It cost proper money - £90! Why do it? I knew before I went in that I would be told off for having not flossed properly and indeed I was thoroughly rebuked. And I knew it would hurt. Bright lights, a whining drill and my hands gripping onto the chair.

Afterwards, it struck me that I can view repentance like a visit to the hygienist. I don’t want to do it very often. I know it will cost me. I expect to be told off. And I think it will hurt and the bright light will expose me.

 But repentance isn’t like that. I went to the Christian conference, Wildfires, last week and someone was sharing from the recent revival that has happened in Asbury in the States that has been marked by people repenting. One phrase struck me – someone who had been there said that there was such a profound sense of God’s kindness and love that you just couldn’t bear the thought of any hindrance, any obstacle in the way of you and Jesus. Instead of not wanting to do it often, repentance was exactly what you wanted to do, because it’s God’s kindness that leads us there (2 Cor 7.10).

 It is true that like the hygienist, it costs. But the cost to me is mostly to my pride account which will be worth nothing come eternity. The far greater cost of our repentance was paid by God himself on the Cross.

 Will I get told off? There have been times I have asked the Lord to search my heart and he has lovingly rebuked me but somehow his rebuke always leaves me believing that change is possible. It’s not condemnation – it’s redirection. It’s not disappointed in me – it’s expectant of change. It’s not covering me with shame – it’s drawing me to holiness. Ultimately, it’s drawing me to Jesus. One of my favourite quotes from the revival was this – “holiness is found in a person” – in Jesus.

Will it hurt?  When we see we have grieved the Lord, there is a godly sorrow, but this is a sorrow that leaves no regrets, a passing sadness that leads to joy, a pain that brings healing.   

Will the light be harsh and exposing? Jesus came to save not to condemn. God’s light shines into our hearts, more glorious than the light of the rainbow, (Revelation 3:4), so that we can know and be known by God.

We too quickly fall for Satan’s lie that repentance is brow-beating, shame-filling, self-lacerating negativity that is worse than the hygienist. The Bible describes repentance in two ways - as coming home to God and as having our minds renewed by God - it is restoration.

One of the biggest joys for me is when I see this happen in people’s lives - either that they come home to him for the first time or that wrong ideas about him or themselves are changed. Recently, I was with a teenager who hadn’t been to church for years. His dad had been in a scarily dark place that week and had watched a church service online and ended coming to the evening service with his son. Both profoundly met with God that evening but what struck me was that his teenage son kept repeatedly saying to me, “I met God tonight and I have come home, I feel like I have come home!”

When Jesus says, “Repent and believe”, it’s not to be feared - it’s an invitation to the Father’s arms.