July 9, 2024

Passage Read: Hosea 12 - Joel 1
Meditation Verses: Hosea 14:1-4

Thought

This is what repentance looks like: Turning away from our own wisdom and ways, and coming back to the Lord; coming to the Lord and asking for cleansing from sin and that He would receive us, so that we could bring to Him what He deserves, the fruit of our lips, not just words but actions consistent with what we say; confessing that it is the Lord alone that saves, that no other power that we once turned to can deliver us or show mercy to us like the Lord can. Then the Lord heals us of our apostasy, He takes away or former drive to go our own way and replaces it with a drive to do His will. He can and will love us freely because we have renounced what incited Him to anger and we have returned to Him to do His will; He never wanted to pour out wrath on us; He has only wanted us to return to Him in truth, that we would love and trust Him and so do as He asks, which was ever and only for our own good.

Application

If I desire to repent, then this is what it should look like. I give up my rights, my demands, my wants and wishes. I give up thinking that the Lord is against me, and I accept that His ways are good and right, better than my own wisdom, and I renounce my former advisors and those I idolized. I ask the Lord for forgiveness and cleansing from my sin and sinful ways. And I can be assured that I will find mercy from the Lord; He will not leave me hanging, abandoned, but will adopt me as His son.