I am GUILTY
I am Guilty and that is the hard truth! If I were to stand in front of the Righteous Judge today, I would be sentenced to eternal damnation!
I am guilty of being an idolater!
I am guilty of lust and an addiction to porn!
I am guilty of lying!
I am guilty of cheating!
I am guilty of stealing!
I am guilty of hating and being angry!
I am guilty of envy and jealousy!
I am guilty of loving self over God!
I am guilty of hypocrisy!
Everything I wrote there is true and has brought so much shame and guilt into my life! Some of that stuff may genuinely shock you all, but don’t let it. There is a big reason why I share this stuff with you all today.
Why?
God has called you and I, sinners alike, to truly repent of our wicked ways and to believe in Him!
But why do I keep living my life for myself?
This is the question I have been asking for the past few years. And it has taken until now for me to understand the root answer.
It is because, and this is so hard for me to admit, but it is because I have never truly repented and given all control over to God!
This is a hard pill for me to swallow and hopefully it is for others as well. To have been living my life as a liar and hypocrite for the past ten or so years, and to be ok with it. This strikes every chord in my body. It makes my bones shiver to think I was a FAKE!
I claimed to be a Christian, but when faced with the choice to worship the Creator or my own desires and lusts, I chose my desires and lusts. There is a reason why for the past few years I have been in a spiritual and mental whirlwind. It is because I have been lukewarm, a lukewarm Christian who cares about his desires. God has been faithfully investing and pouring into my life. All the while I have betrayed and treated Him like a piece of trash.
But He has not stopped pursuing the wretch that is me!
The Worlds Repentance
One thing I need to make clear is that I write this not as a sob story, but as a reminder and eye opener that True repentance is vital.
I will say it again, I am GUILTY!
I am writing this to proclaim the truth that is penetrating my soul, for what feels like the first ever!
This truth is that we are ALL guilty. Just as Romans 3:23 says, “all sin and fall short of the glory of God”. It is the next two verses that show us that it is the free gift of grace, by the blood of Jesus that we have redemption, faith and hope!
When we read about repentance throughout all the scriptures, we have taken it from true repentance to just repentance. Our culture has skewed what it truly means to repent, and I have admittingly fallen into the trap.
What is that trap?
Maybe this will convict you as it did me. This world (and I mean “Christian”) has made the act of true repentance weak. Today it is more about telling God you are sorry and moving on.
But this does not work!
Wicked and the Importance of True Repentance
This is hard for me to share, but like I stated at the beginning, I struggled with an addiction to porn. For years upon years I fought with it, and time after time I would go before the Lord and say I am sorry and ask for forgiveness. But the whole issue with this so-called act of repentance was that it failed over and over. If I were to have counted how many times, I did this it would be well over five hundred.
As I was reading an article about true repentance, I came to understand that it is a gift of God. Also, instead of a life that just makes us feel bad, we should be in awe! In awe of the Creator of this world, the Righteous Judge!
I implore each of you to truly examine what you think repentance is against what the Truth of the Word of God says!
I can’t stress enough to all of you today the importance of all of this. We all are so very wicked and desperately in need of a Savior! It doesn’t matter if you are here today and are a “Christian” or a non-Christian. All of us need to hear the Good News!
True Repentance
Before I finish this post up it is vital for me to, as accurately as I can, tell you what true repentance looks like.
It is, in very simple terms, a full 180!
Yes, that means you need to turn away, FULLY! From your wickedness and run to Jesus! You must rid your whole life of evil by giving it all to God and trusting and knowing that only He can cleanse you of that evil!
Here is the tricky part, and I have fallen captive to this, you cannot, I repeat, cannot do this on your own! Remember it is a gift of God. (2nd Timothy 2:25)
All I could ever ask of you all is to really think about your life. Where does God fit in or better yet where does God come in your life? Is it at the FRONT? Because, like me, you are guilty! One day you and I will be in front of the Righteous Judge who will judge each of us justly. If you have never truly repented and turned away from your wickedness then He will say I don’t know you. (Matthew 7:23)
The Gospel
I don’t want that for you. And I don’t want that either. I want you to know that you are a sinner. But God sent His Son Jesus to die in place of us for the forgiveness of our sins. So that we can be freed from the bondage of sin to have New life with Him at the center!
Today can be the day, you don’t have to wait!
I don’t come before you today as anything but a wretched sinner who has been freed of the guilt and shame. And I will boast in the Lord. Because it is in Him that I have Hope, Strength, Comfort and LIFE!
So please don’t let life slip away like I had for so long. But truly repent today and believe in the God who freely gives repentance and forgiveness!
Check out my video on this below.