The Happiness of Repentance

Repentance = Getting back on the path to God.

I heard a definition of sin and repentance that I find helpful.  Sin is anything that has us turning away from God, and Repentance is turning back towards God.  Sin gets us off the path, and repentance gets us back.

Sometimes we seem to believe that beating ourselves up about whatever we have thought, said, or done wrong is required for forgiveness, but if we are traveling any road, and we get beaten up, it makes getting where we want to go harder.  Obviously we need to recognize that we have turned away from God, and it is okay to feel bad, but beating ourselves up isn't feeling bad.  It's feeling bad and then tearing ourselves down too.  It is telling ourselves we are stupid, and that our mistake has made us unsalvageable, or not worth saving.  It is denying that Christ's atonement can reach us, which takes us even farther away from God.

I have been the queen of beating myself up on occasion, never stopping to think of this as a lack of faith in Christ.  It isn't until relatively recently that I realized what a joyful thing it is to recognize a sin so that I have the opportunity to turn back towards God!  This morning I read in Job 5:17 "Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth:...".  I do not like getting "in trouble" and have often wondered how being corrected by God could be happy -- but it is!  He can help us see where we have turned away from Him, and He will help us turn back to Him.  He is love -- and turning back towards love is happy!

**Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash