Turning Around

Turning Around

[John the Baptist’s] message was, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. . . . Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God.”

Matthew 3:1-2, 8

A WOMAN SAID to me recently, “We have the same old arguments about the same old things. We’ve been married for thirty years, and I’m sick of his apologies. I want him to change.” This woman wanted her husband to repent. The word repentance means “to turn around.” In the context of an apology, it means that I deeply regret the pain my behavior has caused, and I choose to change my behavior.

John the Baptist preached that people needed to repent—to turn away from their sins and turn toward God. When Jesus began his ministry, he had the same message. As we see in verse 8 above, the proof of our heart change is in our actions. When Christ rules in our hearts, we are not happy to keep repeating the same old sins. Instead, we reach out for divine help to change our ways.

When we hurt our spouse, we must acknowledge that what we have done is wrong and that just apologizing is not enough to make it right. We also need to make a plan to change our actions so we don’t hurt our loved one in the same way again. Why would we not want to do that in our closest relationship? Repentance is a vital part of a genuine apology.

Lord, I know I need to do more than say I’m sorry. I need to turn away from my wrong patterns of relating to the one I love. I want to change, but I need your help. Please give me the strength to repent.

Repentance