Day 4

“When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’.”  — ACTS 2:37-38

Peter’s first word of instruction to the thousands gathered on the Day of Pentecost was “Repent”. This should not surprise us. The first word documented as being preached in the New Testament was in the statement of John the Baptist who, in the Desert of Judea, proclaimed God’s word, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 3:2) The first public words recorded from the lips of Jesus are identical. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matthew 4:17) 

When Peter gave this word of instruction, the people were provoked to ask, “What shall we do?” Peter answered, “Repent.”  Much later, Paul, preaching in Athens, said, “For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring’. Therefore since we are God’s off spring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone – an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:28-30) 

Repentance is spoken of in Scripture as being commanded to all people everywhere. It is a vital ingredient in our response to God, and there can be no avoiding or compromising the command to repent. Any attempt to do so will short-circuit the work of God in our lives and bankrupt His blessings. 

But how do we come to repentance? The Greek word for ‘repent’ is metanoia, which is derived from two words; ‘meta’ meaning to change, and ‘nous’, meaning the mind. Quite simply, repentance means ‘to change the mind’, and it runs much deeper than feeling bad about our sin and feeling good about God. It isn’t a feeling, but an attitude of mind that literally changes our thinking from living our way to God’s way, and turning from dependence upon ourselves to dependence upon God. 

It has been said that people are not what they think they are – but what they think, they are. In other words, what we are is a result of what we think. So the question is: what do we think? Paul writes in Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It is in this ‘renewing of our minds’ that we come humbly in repentance to God and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, help me to be mindful of the importance of repentance in my every day walk with You. Bring to light anything about me that is leaning more to the ways of this world than to your way. Help me to live in total dependence upon You. Thank You, Lord.

TO REFLECT UPON: Am I short-circuiting the work of God in my life? Is there anything I need to change in my thinking or in the way I live to be fully repentant?