Four Things You Need to Do to Receive Jesus Christ into Your Life Day 2: Repent
Today’s Scripture passage: Mark 1:1 – 8
The gospel of Mark wastes no time in getting right to the point. In the first 8 verses, we are told of John the Baptist and what his role was: to prepare the way for Jesus. And how did he do this? By preaching repentance of one’s sins and baptizing. We won’t get into baptism with this devotional, but we will focus on repentance. What does this mean? The doctrine of repentance as taught in the Bible is a call to make a radical turn from one way of life to another. The repentance (Greek: metanoia) called for throughout the Bible is a summons to a personal, absolute, ultimate, unconditional surrender to God as sovereign. So, what was John the Baptist asking those who repented to do? The same thing that we are called to do today: give ourselves over to God. We are called to trust that God is Who He claims to be, and to get rid of sinful things in our life. Hard to do? Sure it is, but with the help of God through the working of his Holy Spirit, nothing is impossible.
When my sister was going through a rough patch in her life, she told me about a prayer that she often said. It stuck with me and is something I continually ask God for today. The prayer is simple, and yet very powerful. It goes something like this: “God, I ask that you make the desires that you have for me the desires that I have for myself, and then grant me the power to follow through on those desires.” As I said, it is a simple prayer. But when you are struggling with sins that you want to repent of, remember that we have a loving God Who is there to help us. If you try to do this on your own, I think you need to ask yourself if you truly repented. If you are truly repentant, you surrender to God. He is the one that is there to lead you through this.
So, if you are struggling with sin — REPENT. The message was good for John the Baptist’s generation and it is still good for us today. I also encourage you to ask for help from a fellow believer. Accountability is a very good thing.
Dave Kellerman