Learn To Repent

People who accept discipline are on the pathway to life, but those who ignore correction will go astray. [Proverbs 10.17]

To accept discipline is to repent.

To fail to recognize discipline for what it is is to ignore correction. To ignore correction means we go astray.

When we suffer, we are experiencing discipline. That is the time to repent. And, if we don't "know" what to repent for, we should repent for not knowing! We need to learn to repent!

As the children of Israel's story went in the Old Testament, hard-heartedness was a real problem for them. Their hard-heartedness involved not trusting God and His Promises but instead, complaining and doing things their own way. They refused to repent in their hard times (needing water as in the case at Meribah) and, as a result, went astray.

We have a saying that 'life happens.' We resort to this statement when things don't necessarily go as planned or desired. How much better off would we be in those situations to simply repent (as described above) and determine to see God's mighty hand move on our behalf instead of simply resigning ourselves to 'the pain' with no corrective course of action?

When we resign ourselves to the pain without repenting, we have entirely missed the point. We have muddied the waters of justice. We have missed God. We have "gone astray' as Proverbs 10.17 says.

Yes, I realize this idea takes us a different route than much of mainstream religious thinking... but then, I am of the opinion that we don't repent nearly enough.

Father, I want to live a repentant lifestyle. I want to learn to repent.