BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Sam 17, Rom 15, Lam 2, Luke 22
Why do people in the bible ‘rent their clothes’ or tear their shirts when something happens? They do that as a way of showing extreme anger for example after interviewing Jesus, the High Priest tore his garment and shouted blasphemy to show he was angry with the response of Jesus (Matthew 26:59-66). People also rent their clothes as a way of showing deep sorrow for example Reuben rent his clothes when he found out that Joseph had been taken from the pit and sold (Genesis 37:29). The third reason why people rent their clothes is to show regret and remorse like we read in Joel 2:13-and rend your heart, not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.
God is not interested in regret that does not lead to a change of heart. Actually we have learnt that regret profits nothing anyway. Regrets only leads to emotional pain. It can lead to rash decision. It can also hinder one’s progress, cause stagnancy and if care is not taken it can lead to death as we saw in the case of Judas Iscariot. God is not interested in the death of any sinner so regret is not what God is looking for. Remorse is been sorry about ones action but never putting measures in place to stop it from happening again. Saul did everything in his power to kill David. Every time David had the opportunity to kill Saul and he didn’t, Saul will start to cry. He would say I am terrible person, you are a good man. The next minute you find the same Saul chasing after David to kill him. This is remorse.
Repentance is not only about feeling sorry but putting measures in place to ensure that you don’t fall again. For example as an individual, you know that too much talking gets you into trouble – you say things you should not say. What you do is minimize the way you talk. You know there are one or two things you do not like doing, but you find yourself doing them. Instead of crying for forgiveness every night, investigate the cause or what circumstance leads to them. Take for instance masturbation and pornography, 99 per cent of the time people masturbate when they are idle. What you do is avoid idleness and keep yourself busy. Not only that, distance yourself from nude pictures, music where they talk of sex or movies where they have sex. How about fornication? It is impossible to fornicate when people are watching, what you do is avoid going to visit the opposite sex alone. If you find yourself alone with the opposite sex at your place or any where make sure the doors are open and the windows are all open with the curtains up so that everyone can see what is going in the room. If it is at night, don’t sleep in the same room with the opposite sex alone. If internet pornography is the problem always use the internet when people are around. If it is gossiping, avoid the company of those that gossip and if you find yourself in their midst whatever they say just tell them nobody is perfect. Lastly, you also need to take your bible studies very seriously and fast for mercy.
FACTS: Identify what causes you to sin or the circumstances that leads to them and deal with it.
Bro Samuel – Reaching the world for Jesus
