Repentance PR

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously that we may offer the fruit of our lips.” Hosea 1, 2

Word association. I’ll say a word and you say the first thing that comes to mind. Ready?

“Repent.”

What was the first thing that came to mind? Sin? Sinner? Judgment? Turn around?

If ever a word could hire a PR firm, I suspect “repent” would be among the first in line. People don’t like to hang out with repentance or meditate on its meaning; it is much more comfortable to note it, attach our connotation to it and move on. Non believers think “judgment” and brace themselves against it. Believers think “sinners” and amen in smug agreement. And we all lose out in our limited view. So let’s give repentance a fair shake.

Should it surprise us that it his own people whom God most often calls to repentance? It was true of Old Testament Israel and it was true of New Testament believers. The church in Ephesus had lost its first love, and Jesus said, “repent."  The churches in Pergamum and Thyatira had welcomed false teachings, and Jesus said, "repent.” The church in Sardis was found weak, disobedient and lacking in its deeds, and Jesus said, "repent.” The church in Laodicea had lost its fervor and Jesus said, "repent.” The call to repentance resounds throughout the earth, but perhaps first and foremost to God’s own people.

Which leads us to the other thing we need to understand about repentance. Certainly we are called to turn away from sin, but repentance is every bit as much a call to blessing. It reflects God’s judgment, yes, but it holds forth his mercy, as well. Listen to God’s heart in repentance, so beautifully spoken through his prophet, Hosea: “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon" (Hosea 14:4-6). Such hope! Such favor! Such love!

Repentance is not a beat-down, but an opportunity. It is not a desert, but an oasis. It is not confinement; it is freedom.

“Repent.” Me.

“Repent.” Blessing.

[Click here to see the daily reading in Hosea 14:1-9.]