Matthew 4:16-17 (HCSB)

“The people who live in darkness have seen a great light, and for those living in the shadowland of death, light has dawned. From then on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!’”

If we are to be followers of Jesus, then we need to look at how He lived His. His first words are very important for us. He began by saying, “REPENT!” What does repent mean? Vine’s Dictionary says it comes from the verb metanoeo which signifies “to change one’s mind or purpose.” It goes on in saying, “In the NT the subject chiefly has reference to ‘repentance’ from sin, and this change of mind involves both a turning from sin and a turning to God.” So basically, to repent, means to turn. When Jesus first spoke this word, He was speaking to people who were living in darkness. He said to turn from darkness into the light. He was telling them to turn back to God. It is interesting that Jesus spoke this to the people who supposedly knew about God. These weren’t Gentiles, they were God’s chosen people and Jesus is telling them to turn back to God.

I believe that this is an important issue for us to discuss, because if Jesus first assignment was to tell the people who knew about God to turn back to Him, then we must do the same. Honestly, have you really repented of your wicked ways? Do you still practice what you were suppose to let die? Is your old man ruling over you? Lets have a deep look into our lives and see if there’s anything wrong with us. We were given the command to go and preach this gospel to the world, but I think we need to get the world out of us first. Is there any difference on how you live your life now as a Christian than before you knew the Lord? Has your life impacted others to change? How much of God is really in you? These are very hard questions to answer, but we need to be honest with ourselves and with God if we are too see a revival in this land.

We see what’s going on around us, the world seems like its going crazy. The good is seen as bad and the bad is seen as good. We have been too passive. Our prayer life has been a joke, and let’s not even mention evangelism. We have been too comfortable living our little Christian lives that we forgot our main goal: winning souls! But how can we preach to others about changing their lives when we are committing the same sins or even worse. There is nothing worse than a so-called Christian who goes to church every Sunday, but then lives Monday thru Saturday like an unbeliever. What kind of message are we really sending to the world? How can we expect for others to take us serious about our God, when we don’t take Him serious? We get so distracted by everything. We have abandon our God. We need to repent; TURN back to Him. You need to make a decision how you will live your life. Who will be your God? Your decision will effect your future.

Filed under: Devotionals by Adilson Chacón