Was that in there?

...if my people who are called by my name become humble and pray, and look for me, and turn away from their evil ways, then I will hear them from heaven. I will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

If my people - notice that God doesn't say 'when', but 'if'. There is a condition - we must make the first move when it comes to repentance. This message isn't written to those who don't already have a relationship with him - it is written to those 'called by his name'. These are believers who obviously have grown cold, a little too apathetic and indifferent. This is where we find ourselves whenever we allow our focus to become clouded by the things of this world - coldness drifts in, hunger begins to be fulfilled by something other than his presence. If we want to 'come back' from wherever it is we have drifted, it begins by humbling ourselves and asking for his help to return!

Humble yourself, pray, and look for him - these are three very specific actions that are involved in repentance. First, we must recognize we aren't on the right path. This oftentimes requires more than a bit of humility because we might just want to hide our misguided adventures and not be very open about them. When we are finally willing to admit them, we are on the path to restoration. Then we are to pray - talk with God about what we realize to have been our failure. At this point, don't be surprised when God shows us something entirely different that led to the choices we have made. We might think it is one thing that got us off course, but when he shows us there is something quite different that led to the compromise, we need to listen intently.

Look for him - it is only in seeking that we find things. Have you ever noticed the urgency that comes when we are seeking something we have need of or have misplaced? We uncover a good many other things in the process, don't we? Things we may have forgotten about entirely, but that clutter up our lives. When we move toward confession, we might just discover there are a few more things we uncover that we need to lay out on the table before God, as well. Perhaps this is where the 'turning away' comes. As we discover the 'stuff' we didn't realize was tucked away, we don't want to just leave it there - we want to get it out in the open and rid ourselves of it. Repentance isn't always convenient, easy, or without complications. It is necessary, though! It is where we find ourselves ridding ourselves of what only clutters our lives and makes things more difficult for us. Just sayin!

Are you stuck?

We can allow our circumstances to drive us into places of bitterness and resentment. When we allow this to occur, we find ourselves drifting further and further apart from God. Chaos is a great source for bitterness to occur - especially when the chaos is caused by 'someone' rather than 'something'. It is hard to admit, but there are times when our pain takes us into a place where we become bitter against the 'someone' we might not want to ever form bitterness toward - GOD. We can all have dreams and hopes, then in almost a moment in time those dreams and hopes can be ripped out from underneath us - leaving us feeling a little bitter and hurt.

Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32)

Direction determines destination - we sometimes head in the wrong direction in our lives and then wonder why we are not reaching our destination of being closer to God. We cannot get closer to God when we are headed in a direction away from God. We can count on our destination being chaotic whenever we turn our back on God and we choose to go our own way instead. We need to deal with our wrong choices - quickly confessing them, making a clean break from them, and then relying upon God to put us back on the right path - so our direction is changed. If our lives are not pointed toward the things of God, we will find our hope is built up. If our lives are pointed in a direction away from God, we might call this being led away by distractions. Distractibility is easier than we might imagine because whenever we make choices, even unconscious ones, that lead us off the path toward God. The wrong direction always leads to the wrong destination. When we are distracted we oftentimes interpret life through a very wrong 'filter'. We see things as they really aren't - making it easier and easier to grow more bitter and resentful of the issues that will creep up within our lives.

We don't always know when we have veered from the right direction. It often takes a period of 'discovery' to let us know that we are not headed in the right direction. In that time of discovery we can become very angry with God or others because we want someone to blame for our bad choices - not wanting to own up to our own choices. We begin to select the emotion of anger to lead us to a place of bitterness and resentment. When our choices are wrong, there is no one to blame other than ourselves - even when the choices were 'unconsciously made', they were OUR choices. Make a clean break - this is pretty telling, isn't it? We need to let go of the wrong direction - in other words, we turn around in the opposite direction and we begin to 'head back'. Did you ever retrace your steps? I seem to do that more and more as I get older, getting distracted along the way and forgetting why I was headed in a certain direction. Distractions only have power over us when we give into those distractions. If we choose to keep our minds and hearts directed toward one thing, we are remaining consistent and focused. To make a clean break between what has made us bitter and angry with God or others, we begin to allow focus and consistency to be built into our lives again.

I am not going to make light of the fact that bitterness is a hard thing to let go - it is in our lives because there is something we feel we are owed because we were 'wronged". Even when the 'wrong' is of our own choosing, we might feel 'wronged' - blaming God for 'letting' us get off track. How may we break free of this 'blame game' and let go of our bitterness and resentment? We make a clean break from those actions and thoughts - by turning away from them and refocusing on God again. God doesn't owe us anything - nor does the other person we have been holding in this place of bitter resentment. What is owed? Forgiveness - we let them go and then we turn to God to be restored. When we give God our anger and bitterness, he takes it and then helps us to let go of it. He begins to restore hope where hope has been broken. He begins to bring right order where disorder and chaos has sent us into a tailspin in life. To make a clean break requires a turning away from what has distracted us and to focus again on what is greater than any distraction this world can put in our path. Just sayin!