RSS

Enjoy Life, Enjoy God


Dale Patterson

SORROW UNTO REPENTANCE

May 1, 2013

Sorrow is largely a feeling, but repentance is an action.

What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this.
                                                  --Ezra 9:13 TNIV

When the exiles returned to their homeland, if no one else, Ezra knew why they had been exiled in Babylon for seventy years, and he knew that the return to Jerusalem and Judah was the hand of God to start over with a new chance, a time not only for sorrow, but genuine repentance.

We rejoice in forgiveness, and second chances, not merely for our sorrow that turns to joy, but forgiveness and the grace of God that opens the doors to change as in, "I'm not going to do that again," that's repentance. Sorrow is just a feeling. Repentance is a whole new life.

Joyfully,

Dale Patterson