I was in a fog recently. A spiritual fog. I couldn’t see God
in my situation. He just wasn’t doing anything. And what was I doing? Worrying.
My struggle with worry is my most persistent sin. When I get
caught up in it, I can’t see God. I just realized why. It’s because sin
separates us from God. When I’m caught up in my sin, I have my back to God. It’s
no wonder I can’t see Him!
My new definition of sin is this: Sin is turning your back
on God. We tend to think of sin in terms of certain actions people do, like
lying or stealing or, for the “really bad” sinners, murdering. But I believe
sin starts before the sinful action. It starts with an attitude, a perspective,
of turning our backs on God. And when we’ve turned our backs on him, there are
all kinds of awful things we can do.
What can we do about this sorry state of affairs? Because of
Jesus, the solution is simple. We simply turn around. We turn to God and turn
our backs on our sin. This is the essence of repentance. The dictionary
definition of repentance is “to turn from sin” or “to change one’s mind.” But
the point of repentance is not what you’re turning away from, but what you’re
turning towards. So my new definition of repentance is this: Turning your back
on your sin and turning towards God.
This, for me, makes repentance more than an occasional, “oh
no, I did it wrong again, I need to repent” kind of event. Instead, we need a
lifestyle of repentance, of continually turning towards God. The truth of our
sinful condition is that, without wanting to, without even noticing it, we constantly
turn back around, away from Him. We need to, just as constantly, turn back to
Him, and we need to do it all day long.
When I’ve turned to God, when I’m looking at Him, those
things I’m worrying about just don’t seem as hopeless. My sin loses its power
over me. The fog clears, and I CAN see God at work. I can see how big He is and
how much He loves me. All I need to do is turn to Him. Again and again.
