Repentance
Kindness That Leads to Repentance
“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Romans 2:4)
I see it in his eyes. They are kind. His eyes say it all. His eyes tell me what’s in his heart. My husband, Keith, looks at me with kind eyes. My response? I feel the most tender love for him.
The eyes tell us what fills the heart. And so we wonder—what fills Jesus’ eyes? What if you were in His presence and He looked deeply into your eyes. What if you couldn’t take your eyes away from His. What would you see in His eyes for you? You’d see kindness; kindness beyond anything you’d experienced. Kindness that causes you to love Him with every fiber of your being.
As the Apostle Paul asks in Romans 2:4, do we think lightly of His kindness and tolerance and patience toward us? In other words, are we going about our day hardly looking Christ’s way? When He convicts us of our sin, do we look in Jesus’ eyes and sincerely apologize to Him and perhaps the person we’ve wronged? Or, are we like a child who is caught doing something wrong and maybe at best, we mutter, “sorry.”
“Look in Jesus’ eyes,” we’re reminded. “Do we think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads us to repentance?”
Pause now to look into Jesus’ eyes and respond accordingly.
Dear Savior, You are so KIND and loving and patient. Forgive me for sinning against You when I sin against others. May I look deeply in Your eyes and then turn and reflect Your kindness to others.
Have you ever struggled to find the right words to pray? In those times, it can help to pray God’s Word. Click HERE to discover prayers for discernment, discouragement, knowing God’s way, and forgiveness.
If You Need a Place to Hide
King David was deceived. He thought his sin of adultery and murder was hidden; no one would find out about it. But sin isn’t a kind bedfellow. Psalm 32:3-4 records how it affected David. “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” Notice that David said, “Your hand.” He knew God knew and God’s hand was heavy on him.
But what happened when David acknowledged his sin and confessed it to the Lord? We find the answer in Psalm 32:5. “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.’”
What advice does David give us in Psalm 32:6? “Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found.” David discovered that instead of attempting to hide his sin and himself from God, it was better to make God his hiding place. “You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance” (Psalm 32:7).
There may be times when we, like David, think we can hide our sin from God. But the truth is, we can’t. He sees us and even knows our thoughts. Yet even while we are in our sin, He invites us to a place of forgiveness—Himself. Today we can choose to stop trying to hide our sin. We can turn to God and humbly confess and repent of our sins.
Lord, how sweet to know You as my HIDING PLACE who preserves me from trouble and surrounds me with songs of deliverance. Thank You. I praise You.
Repentance is the way to come clean with God and enter into His forgiveness. To learn more about repentance, watch Debbie’s teaching on it HERE.
Are We Tolerating What Jesus is Against?
Jesus is the Son of Man who knows what it is to live in human skin. However, what is inside of Him is different from us. His innermost being is holy glowing purity. Revelation 2:18-20a describes the ascended Christ as having eyes like a flame of fire and feet like burnished bronze. Revelation 1:16 describes His face as the sun shining in its strength. Imagine that visual for a minute. Jesus’ face is like the sun shining in its strength.
Following these magnificent otherworldly descriptions of Jesus, we’re told that Jesus, the Son of God, says this, “I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first, but I have this against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality” (Revelation 2:19-20a).
Yes, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and He is slow to anger, but we must never forget that He is also the Son of God reigning in glory. He sees our deeds and what we tolerate that is against Him. Is there anything we need to repent of before we ask Him for His continued blessings?
The Return 2020 – Global Repentance and Revival
I’d noticed “The Return 2020” being promoted in a few places, but my attention had been on my husband’s recovery from back surgery. However, when I texted my sister on September 26 and asked what she was doing, she responded that she was watching “The Return.” Deciding it was time for me to look into it, I googled “The Return 2020 Simulcast ” and was immediately captivated. A few hours later, I shared it on Facebook and posted, “Watch with me.” However, I should have posted, “Participate with me.” Why? The Return isn’t something you simply watch. Rather, you worship. You pray. You repent. You receive the Lord’s blessing. You are changed. It’s an experience rather than an event to observe. Jonathan Cahn’s message to America was powerful. After recounting Israel’s fall, he stated,
“America has likewise fallen. In the midst of our blessings and prosperity, we too have turned away from the God of our foundation. We’ve estranged ourselves from Him.” Continuing, Cahn stated, “We drove God out of our hearts. Out of our government. Out of our ways. Out of our laws. Out of the education of our children. Out of the public squares. Out of our businesses. Out of our media. Out of our culture. Out of our lives.” Jonathan Cahn.
The Return 2020 is a call for repentance and revival. If you are news weary from Covid, rioting, politics, and more, watch The Return 2020 simulcast and more importantly, participate in what God is doing.
“We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly and rebelled, even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, listen and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name.” Daniel 9:5, 19
Heavenly Father, You call us to repent and return to You. Forgive us for our sins against You and others, for our apathy, and sitting back watching when we should be fasting and working in Your field that is ripe for harvest. Thank You for being merciful to us and giving us the opportunity to repent and return to You. Heal our land. Let it begin with us.
A – Z Names of God with Verses
Friends,
At the last P.R.A.Y. with Passion Conference, I promised my Wisconsin sisters I would provide the A – Z list of God’s names and attributes from my book, Pray With Purpose, Live With Passion. You will find them listed below. I suggested that a great way to begin your day is by looking up one of the Scripture references and praising God for how He is revealed in that passage. You can then continue your prayer time, repenting and confessing ways in which you realize you may be missing the mark in relation to that aspect of His divinity. Then, you can ask God for help in that area; as well as intercede for others. As discussed at the PRAY Conference, our prayer lives expand as we focus our prayers on God’s attributes.
For instance, we might worship God saying, “Lord, You are the Almighty God! I praise You.” Praising God for being Almighty may then cause me to contemplate on how I don’t always bend my will to His. Neither do I walk by His strength which He so willingly offers. With that prayerful realization, an opportunity to repent presents itself.
Next, I open my heart to God. “Fill me with Your power. Help my husband and children walk in Your strength today. Help the unsaved turn to You, the Almighty, and be saved.”
Having praised, repented, and asked, I now focus on yielding to God. My prayer time doesn’t end with my “Amen.” It begins as I listen to God’s voice and yield to the Holy Spirit’s promptings.
The following list of A-Z attributes contans 26 names and attributes to get you started. If you’d like to continue broadening your praise, repentance, asking, and yielding, I have a complilation of 225 + Names, Titles, and Attributes of God. In addition, Pray with Purpose, Live with Passion provides valuable Scriptural insights, personal examples, stories, and guided prayer opportunities for you with each A-Z attribute. It also has discussion questions if you’re reading it with a group or using it for your Bible study. You’ll also find a P.R.A.Y. chart that gives examples for how to praise, repent, ask, and yield in relation to the 26 A-Z attributes included in the book.
For those new to Prayers of My Heart Prayer Journal, I suggest you label your first column in the Week at a Glance section, “LORD.” At the Wisconsin P.R.A.Y. Conference, we labeled April 5, “Almighty” and agreed to lift our voices each morning, praising God for a different attribute each day. This morning as I praised God as Immanuel, it was a blessing knowing that my Wisconsin sisters were joining me.
I pray the following is just the beginning of a lifetime of praising God!
Love,
Debbie
Sunday Almighty, Ps 91:1
Monday Beloved, Mt 3:16-17
Tuesday Comforter, 2 Cor 1:3
Wednesday Door, John 10:10
Thrusday Eternal, Deut 33:27
Friday Faithful, Rev 19:11
Saturday Guardian of My Soul, 1 Peter 2:25
Sunday Holy, Psalm 99:5
Monday Immanuel, Is 7:14
Tuesday Just, Deut 32:4
Wednesday King of Kings, Ps 5:2-3
Thursday Light, John 8:12
Friday Majestic, Psalm 8:1
Saturday New Life, 2 Cor 5:17
Sunday Overcomer, John 16:33
Monday Potter, Is 64:8
Tuesday Quickening Spirit, Ps 80:18 KJV
Wednesday Righteous, Psalm 7:17
Thursday Shield, Psalm 3:3
Friday Tower, Proverbs 18:10
Saturday Upholder, Is 41:13
Sunday Vinedresser, John 15:1
Monday Wonderful, Psalm 105:2-5
Tuesday eXalted, Psalm 34:3
Wednesday Yahweh, Exodus 3:14-15
Thursday Zealous, Is 9:7
PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO OTHERS SO THEY CAN JOIN US AS WE P.R.A.Y. Across the Nation. If I haven’t been to your state and your church can host 200+ women, email me about having a P.R.A.Y. with Passion Conference. debbie@hillcountryministries.org.
Knowing God, Teacher, Rock of Israel, Voice of Authority
Friends,
There is no greater joy than knowing God and serving Him. If you’ve heard me speak or teach you know a significant time in my life was when God directed my heart to understand that there is nothing in and of my old self that He can use. All that is good and glorious pours from HIS Holy nature. Since that time, my prayer and life mission has been to increasingly know God and the power of His resurrection. (Phil 3:7-8)
Whether you recently received your journal or have been journaling for years, I’d like to encourage you to use the first column in the Week at a Glance section for the Lord. Yes, title the first column “Lord.” Then, each day when you pray, select a different attribute for which to praise Him. For those of you who also ordered the 200 A-Z Names, Attributes, and Titles of God, you may be checking the boxes beside each attribute on which you focus. Others of you may simply be prayerfully focusing on different attributes of God for which you praise Him. I have already added 20 more attributes to the 200! The list keeps growing and it is such a delight to increasingly know and love my Lord!
Here’s how to do it. This morning, when I rose, I went to my study and knelt as I always do. Truly, as Isaiah 39:15b says, “In quietness and trust is your strength.” I find that beginning each day in quietness before God is the key to walking by His Spirit the rest of the day. In addition to beginning each day on my knees, God’s Word is the powerful sword that clears the clutter from my mind and sharpens me to His Words and ways. Lately I’ve been reading through Isaiah. Today, I read Isaiah 30. And, guess what? I added to my list of 200 Names, 3 more names. It’s so much fun! I pray you have your Bible open beside your journal every day. I pray as God reveals Himself to you through the Word, that becomes a springboard from which you broaden your prayers for others and yourself.
The 3 names I added and you can add?
Isaiah 30:20 Teacher. Yes…can you believe I left “Teacher” off the 200 Names list? What was I thinking???
Isaiah 30:29 Rock of Israel. We already have “Rock,” but I like the addition of “of Israel.”
Isaiah 30:30 Voice of Authority. Oh, friends, if we ever need to be reminded of this attritubute of God, it is now. HE is the Voice of Authority. When other voices in our heads tell us to turn to the right or left, we need to remember God is our Teacher. We need to heed HIS VOICE of AUTHORITY in all areas of our lives.
Consider Isaiah 30:20-21 in conjunction with verse 30 as the springboard for your prayers today. “Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.”
Although these verses are a reference to the glories of the Millennium, they hold true for believers today. God speaks to us the way, the right and left, through the Bible and through the voice of His Holy Spirit. The question is, are we listening?
Today, dear one, focus your prayers by beginning your prayer time praising God as your Teacher, Rock, and Voice of Authority. Then repent. Yes, too often we forget this part. However, it’s an important part of P.R.A.Y. (praise, repent, ask, yield) We need to repent where we’ve fallen away from the image of the One who created us and called us into conformity with Him.
“Father, forgive me. You are my Teacher, yet I’ve ignored your teaching in this area: ______. You are the Rock of Israel and my Rock, yet I’ve chosen to totter in this sin, _____________.
You are the Voice of Authority, yet I’ve listened to other voices that have lured me from pure devotion to You. Forgive me.”
Yes, friends. Let us praise God each morning for who He is. But let us not forget to repent where we have sinned. Praising God should not only direct our hearts to the glory of who God is, but should also serve as a reminder of ways in which He wants to conform us to His beloved Son.
Rejoice with me today, loved one. We have a Teacher. We have a Rock. We have a Voice of Authority. And, as you rejoice, remember to pray for others that they will learn from the Teacher, stand on the Rock, and heed the Voice of Authority.
Love,
Debbie