Failure to Repent
The more evil this world gets the more proud and rebellious the hearts of people become. When people get hard hearts, and they sin greatly, God tries to get their attention so they will return to Him. He does that through increasing His punishments over time to turn up the heat more and more. However, when people are very rebellious, nothing God does is effective in getting them to repent and to turn back to Him. (Revelation 9:20) This will happen on a large scale during the seven years of the Tribulation, but we see it happening around us now already.
Some people become sorry because of their sin, or they become ashamed of what they have done. That is not repentance, though. Repentance is when we have a change of mind that leads to a change in behavior. It happens when we sin, and God convicts of what we have done. If we are willing to repent, we stop doing that sinful action or attitude, and we begin to do what God's Word tells us to do. Of course, if a person is not a believer, the first step in repentance is to turn away from all sin, because they realize the effects of sin to bring death and hell. Then, they trust Jesus as Lord and Savior, so that they begin to do His will, instead of going their own way. In either case, repentance is necessary to see God work to reverse the effects of sin in our lives.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Revelation 11-13.
Some people become sorry because of their sin, or they become ashamed of what they have done. That is not repentance, though. Repentance is when we have a change of mind that leads to a change in behavior. It happens when we sin, and God convicts of what we have done. If we are willing to repent, we stop doing that sinful action or attitude, and we begin to do what God's Word tells us to do. Of course, if a person is not a believer, the first step in repentance is to turn away from all sin, because they realize the effects of sin to bring death and hell. Then, they trust Jesus as Lord and Savior, so that they begin to do His will, instead of going their own way. In either case, repentance is necessary to see God work to reverse the effects of sin in our lives.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Revelation 11-13.