Sin and Repent, 2 words we don't hear every day...

The other day, I honestly did something silly that hurt my wife's feelings. When I saw how it made her feel, it really brought me to tears. I was genuinely sorry for what I did and made up my mind that I would never do anything like that again. I repented because I sinned against my wife.

Those are words that we don't really hear a lot about these days. The whole concept of sinning against someone or sinning against God doesn't seem to be in the vocabulary of our country. With the concept of sin nearly removed from our nations dictionary of terms, we also lose the concept of what it means to repent.

That event made me think about how I feel when I sin against God. It doesn't have to be a BIG sin, it can be something "silly"... something small that we have come to accept in this society. It seems as though we are taught so much about grace, that the face that we need to really feel sorry for what we've done has been mitigated because no one wants to feel bad.

The truth is, the idea of repentance did not stop when John the Baptist came and said "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is upon us!"

The idea of repentance did not stop when Jesus died on the Cross for all of our sins.

Repentance was one of the main themes in the book of Acts - as a refresher, the book of Acts was when the Gospel was spread by believers like you and me across most of the known world! Let's take a look at a few verses in Acts - feel free to read the surrounding verses:

• Acts 2:38  (Acts 2) And Peter said to them, “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 3:19  (Acts 3) Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,

• Acts 8:22  (Acts 8) Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.

• Acts 17:30  (Acts 17) The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

Even the book of Revelation, that talks about Jesus' return talks about repentance 10 times!

So... here's the question for the day. How do you respond when you realize that you've sinned against someone? How do you respond when you realize that you've sinned against God? If your heart doesn't ache, if there isn't a hint of remorse, if you toss it off as "it's okay, God knows my heart" and you keep going in the same direction, you may need to ask God to soften your heart.

This week, as God to show you where you may be treating sin and repentance as casual things in your own life. Ask God to soften your heart towards Him and to others. It will change the nature of all your relationships!