When Conviction Meets Repentance
Have you ever found yourself needing to repent?
Have you ever been at a point in your life where you’ve deeply hurt or wronged someone, and you knew you needed to apologize?
Perhaps today, you’re reading this with the weight of conviction on your shoulder.
You need to stop being so mean-spirited and critical to your mom and instead choose kindness.
You need to stop gossiping behind your friend’s back and instead be a safe place.
You need to stop lying to your boyfriend or girlfriend and instead choose truth.
There’s a prophet named Micah in the Scriptures whose entire purpose here on Earth was to call God’s people to repentance.
To challenge them to stop.
To pause.
To acknowledge the spaces in their life that had them living outside of the way of Jesus and to call them back.
To call them out of anger and into kindness.
To call them out of fear and into trust.
To call them out of idolatry and into worship.
Now to give you some context, Micah lived during the time of the divided kingdom of God’s people. God’s people are very much astray. They have drifted far from God and are looking to various ways of fulfilling their fleshly desires.
The Israelite people found themselves seeped in a culture centered around idolatry, materialism, sex, drunkenness, and violence.
Feel familiar?
From George Floyd to Uvalde. From cancel culture to Roe v. Wade. From only fans to Pornography. Our world, our country, our community is mired in turmoil and destruction. Destruction of minds, our souls, and our bodies.
And while some of these things stem from deeply concerning issues, the ways that we’ve chosen to go about them—whether helpful or harmful at their core—have majorly been rooted in a spirit of division, anger, and vitriol.
Our tendency online is to bully. To berate. To bicker.
We’ve either directly or indirectly helped create a culture that is far removed from the heart of God.
So too, did the Israelite people.
And that’s where Micah steps onto the scene and proclaims the Word of the Lord:
Micah 1:2,
Hear, you peoples, all of you,
listen, earth and all who live in it,
that the Sovereign Lord may be witness against you,
the Lord from his holy temple.
Look! The Lord is coming from his dwelling place;
he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.
The mountains melt beneath him
and the valleys split apart,
like wax before the fire,
like water rushing down a slope.
All this is because of Jacob’s transgression,
because of the sins of the people of Israel.
What is Jacob’s transgression?
Is it not Samaria?
What is Judah’s high place?
Is it not Jerusalem?
“Therefore I will make Samaria a heap of rubble,
a place for planting vineyards.
I will pour her stones into the valley
and lay bare her foundations.
All her idols will be broken to pieces;
all her temple gifts will be burned with fire;
I will destroy all her images.
Since she gathered her gifts from the wages of prostitutes,
as the wages of prostitutes they will again be used (Micah 1:2-7, NIV).
Skip to Micah 2:3,
“I am planning disaster against this people,
from which you cannot save yourselves.
You will no longer walk proudly,
for it will be a time of calamity” (Micah 2:3-5, NIV).
Now, I’m not going to lie, this isn’t the most encouraging verse to read when unpacking and discussing our parallel societies.
But this is the truth of the matter: Israel had become a corrupt nation, living in ways that were antithetical to the Way of Jesus.
And we too, find ourselves in a similar place.
And in the midst of the hurt, the pain, the evil, and the injustice. God mourns.
His innate Character longs for justice to prevail. He sees the abuse, the violence, the wickedness, the evil, and He desires repentance.
For His creation to recognize the gross pain they’re inflicting on one another and to turn around. To go a different direction.
To move from division to unity.
To move from war to peace.
To move from abuse to love.
So, my friend, what about you? Is there something that you’re feeling convicted to repent of?
If so, may I gently encourage you to lean into that invitation? What do you need to release? What do you need to confess? What do you need to grieve?
As we strip ourselves of iniquities and shortcomings, by the saving grace of Jesus Christ, we are made new. We are washed freely in His blood. A blood spilled out and poured over every single sin, shortcoming, and failure.
As we confess our sins, He is just to forgive them.
As we turn from our wicked ways, He is kind to lead us into the Way everlasting.
What a beautiful gift. And it’s ours today if we’re willing to claim it. So, would you join me in leading the way? In going first? In recapturing a vision for authentic repentance so that genuine renewal can break out all around us?
On earth as it is in heaven.
May it be so in us, we pray.
Amen.
