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Good morning!

An incredible blessing comes through a very “unlikely” word you have heard. Repent. Pastor Jim talked about this in a post he had put on Facebook and I pondered it for quite some time.

The word Repent conjures up feelings of guilt and shame. It may make you think of a street preacher yelling at you. But that isn’t what the word means and it certainly isn’t a “shouting” angry word.

It is an invitation to change the way you think. To change your mind. The Greek word is metanoia and it means just that. What if we rethought the way our minds work and received that invitation?

It is interesting to me how humans try to manage behavior. On one end of the spectrum there has been the “religious crowd” or the “Pharisees” who use power, guilt and shame to control people, or we try to use the rules and regulations of religion to control ourselves. 

The other end of the spectrum is to toss all that out the window and say there are no rules, no right or wrong. Everyone has their own truth and should do whatever makes them happy. Except that in this case, people end up hurting each other and themselves in the process because we cannot have all these colliding so-called truths fit into something cohesive and productive. 

Both of these ways of thinking lead to dead ends and pain. 

What if there is a different way to think, though, that avoids both of these? Well, aren’t we glad that Jesus showed us! He got the most upset at the religious people of His day aka the Pharisees but He also didn’t leave the broken people in their broken way of thinking. He showed them a different way.

Enter in “the Kingdom of God” and all that comes with His way of thinking. In His truth, we see light and wisdom. We live empowered and not with an oppressive power over us and not in what the world programs us to think is “freedom” by abandoning right and wrong. His Kingdom is to have a deep, abiding, joyfilled, peaceful life of relationship with Him. We can live in overwhelming gratitude that even in the painful, challenging, self-defeating moments of life, He is allowing it all to bring us to a right way of understanding what we need and that He is the answer.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

Reflection: Where do I need a change of thinking? Do I fall on one side or the other of the spectrum of guilt/shame or of living just for momentary happiness? 

Invite God into your way of thinking and ask Him to bring you into a right relationship with Him!