the message:day 1
[Read & meditate on Matthew 4.17. To the Jewish people, the idea of repenting was returning to the way things were supposed to be. How do you think Jesus believed things were supposed to be?]
It seems that as the One who spoke the universe into being, would sense that the best way to be is the way things were originally created to be. Maybe we need to take a look back at Genesis to see the way things were supposed to be. As we look there, we see that as humans we lived in harmony with God, each other and the world around us–the directive was to care for the world and to fill it. There was a sense of true relationship–with God and each other.
When sin–a choice to do things their way instead of God’s–enters the story, it upsets the harmony and the true relationship that they experienced. At the end of Genesis 3, Adam and Eve are sent away from the garden and in a sense, the rest of the story is getting back to that place, not just physically, but spiritually, relationally, etc. With this in mind, perhaps this true relationship, harmony, and rulership was the place that we need to return to.
Do I have a sense that things are not the way they are supposed to be in my life?
Do I have a desire to return to the place that I belong?
What will it take to get there?
This jumped out at me…
“For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have RETURNED to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” (2 Peter 2:25)
Isn’t it easier to think about change and confession and turning from sin (repentence), when we understand that God simply wants us to return to the way we were meant to be?
It kind of takes the fight out of me and melts my heart toward a God that loves me enough to help me change so that my life can be the fullest possible (John 10:10) and that my relationship with Him & everyone else can be enhanced.
He alone knows all I could be. He had that picture in mind when He created me. A beautiful thought.