Repent and Recalculate

In the 5th lesson of my Psalm 73 study we were able to see the heart of God desiring the repentance of a hardened and obstinate people in Malachi. Few heard the message of destruction, remembered his goodness then repented and returned. Immediately God brought his blessings to them.

Asaph, in Psalm 73 came to the sanctuary of the Lord and was brought to the realization that all he thought, wrongfully, about God needed to be captured. He needs to go back to thinking correct about God. That was that God is good to Israel. When he did the joy of the Lord was restored.

David hit a wall called Nathan, sent from God, to rebuke him. God sent a servant to another servant and repentance happened and God rushed in with his forgiveness.

While sin may have residual consequences; God wants to walk and grow us through those. His loving-kindness is present in each of these non-fiction stories.

He must remain holy and deal with sin, injustice, unrighteousness. But he doesn’t jump on it like a lioness leaps on her prey. No, he sends his Word, his presence, his servants to turn us from the things he hates. When we do the things he hates it’s called sin.

He may use depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, these are also real life ways God calls us from sin back to righteousness or to it for the first time. He wants to turn us toward him. To repentance, which is stopping one behavior and taking on a correct one. Choices, choices!

Many in the book of Malachi hardened all the more. A few turned against the majority despising of God and humbled to become a faithful minority.

Asaph never shared his struggle so he would not cause God’s people to stumbled. He went before the Lord. He captured his runaway thoughts, and made them obedient to the God of Israel.

David accepted responsibility and asked God for his mercy instead of death. It was given, he did not die.

These are examples set for us. For hope and self- examination. Do you need God’s mercy and not death? Are you experiencing an unexplained depression or out of control anxiety? Are you living for your own pleasure, kingdom and shunning God for the busy of expections of others? Are you living a life of comparing with the Jones’s or keeping up with the Kardashians?

It’s ok to realize there’s correction necessary. So let this be your GPS, repent and recalculate. 💞