Exercising a Repentant Heart

The Repentance Series #9

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Previous Posts in this Series on Repentance

#1 Do You Want To Change?

#2 Why Do I Do What I Don’t Want to Do?

#3 What Did You Think Would Happen?

#4 I’m OK, You’re Not

#5 When Temptation Strikes

#6 Addicted

#7 How Does Repentance Feel?

#8 Penance?

In this series I am interacting with Dudley J. Delffs’ A Repentant Heart: The Joy of Restoring Intimacy With God. This is the last post in this series.

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If it seems like writing so much about repentance is beating a dead horse, you’re wrong. For too long I saw repentance as something you did every once in a while when you really blew it. Otherwise you were just an imperfect human serving a human God and, you know, nobody gets it right all the time. No need to get too worn down with the details. That mindset was and is deadly to the spiritual life.

Exercising a repentant heart, avoiding the atrophy of sinful self-centeredness, means a change in being, in lifestyle, choosing to remember the truth about who we are and who God is. It means living out of the still, quiet place inside where the Holy Spirit dwells; it means basing our actions on our heart’s truest desire… Repentance is ongoing, continual, progressive, reflective of our continual need and desire of our Abba’s presence, guidance, and love. - Dudley J. Delffs

Atrophy … what happens when we no longer exercise a repentant heart. It begins to shrink away and eventually fail to function. Without ongoing repentance I’m simply left to trying to be a good person and mostly do what’s right. But failing to recognize the place of repentance will dull and deaden my heart to the point that it no longer keeps me alive. What does ongoing repentance look like? Delffs writes about living in obedience, love, forgiveness, all empowered by the Holy Spirit. This reminds me that the shadow of repentance exists over every part of my Christian experience. And part of that is the community of Christians with which I live out my faith.The results of repentance are exhibited within the relationships that we have with those around us.

COMMUNITY

Among the people with whom we interact most, there are three characteristics:

• Room to struggle, a rich soil for doubt, anger, joy, fear, and the whole spectrum of human experiences.

• A challenge to seek God faithfully and consistently amidst the rushing rapids of our emotions, circumstances, and struggles

• The supernatural, empowering love of Christ.

Delffs notes, “Such a community remembers that we are all pilgrims in process, journeying toward what it means to know, love, and serve the Father, toward becoming more Christlike.”

You might be thinking of the church, and maybe it is that way. But we should expand that idea to consider the full spectrum of people you know, love, and relate with. What are we looking for in community as we exercise a repentant heart?

We need room to struggle and share honestly. “We should allow ourselves to cry, rage, and doubt in front of those we trust and care about.” This, of course, requires trust. Others may disappoint us with their response. But we can also be loved well, encouraged, bolstered in our faith, rebuked lovingly, and drawn closer to our Abba.

We should all have people with whom we pretend about nothing. - Delffs

When others take that risk with us, we should respond with boldness, honesty, grace and the love of Christ.

We need room to embrace the challenge to seek the Father amidst our struggles. We do not seek to embrace authenticity in community just to be honest for honesty’s sake. “Somewhere in the midst of our struggle we long to see God, to know that He’s present and sovereign even though we can’t necessarily feel His presence or see His hand the way we’d like to.” When we are battered and bruised we need others to remind us of what He has done in the past and what He is doing now. We can’t receive that kind of direction and encouragement without the ability to be honest about the truth that we do not have it all together, we get mad, we say things we regret, we overspend our budges, we pray, and hope and love anyway.

ACCOUNTABILITY

The word for all of this is accountability. Exercising repentance means putting into action the processes of recognizing our own sin and also in the presence of those we know have our best spiritual life in view, being honest and hearing their direction and prayer.

• “True accountability is about relationship, in this case, about brotherhood.” Accountability can be scary. Some have experienced it as legalistic and without love and connection.

• “True accountability …combines…a call to holiness and a reminder of Christ’s love.” There has to be a reminder of God’s call to repentant living. In being open we are challenged to be broken by our sinfulness, sharing our sorrow, being loved gracefully, and called to deeper repentance.

• Accountability is running alongside others - shouting encouragement, offering water, sometimes nudging them along in our stride.

• And accountability is mutual - mutual concern, mutual love, mutual direction of repentant hearts set on loving the Father.

Repentance is an ongoing process of grief over our self-centeredness and joy over the Father’s loving gift of grace. Repentance requires a commitment to the Father, not to self-improvement, that transcends all the suffering, the weight of all our uncomfortable emotions, and the circumstances of a fallen world. … A truly repentant heart longs for the joy set before us, the embrace of the Father, the intimacy of relationship with out Creator so much that these temporary sufferings can be endured. —Delffs

My final reflection and encouragement about repentance is that we should never let it atrophy. Exercising repentance keeps it on our mind. Exercising repentance recognizes our ongoing struggles and the willingness to grow stronger in resisting temptation. Just like none of us lives the Christian life perfectly, neither do we repent perfectly. But the Christian life is a repentant life and we find joy and intimacy and victory with God when we engage a repentant heart.

I feel sure I will revisit Delff’s book in the future. He writes about some crucial elements of the Christian journey that I think others often overlook. I hope this series has been a blessing to you. It has been for me. God bless.

-John