Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. Acts 3:19-21
Heavenly Father, the promise of “times of refreshing” from you, our Lord, is so very timely, inviting and tantalizing. Not a singular event of refreshing, but multiple seasons of renewal and gospel joy; several prolonged revivifying encounters with God the Holy Spirit; not a weekend retreat for getting “fired up,” but a long slow burn of hearts coming alive again to the unsearchable riches of your transforming grace. Indeed, Lord, send many waterfalls of fresh grace cascading down upon us… all for your glory.
Though our repentance does not purchase our refreshment, it’s like a gracious spigot through which you are pleased to flood the dry fields of our souls with living water—artesian springs of heavenly goodness. So we repent, we repent of our stultifying unbelief. We repent for letting dry duty supplant gospel delight. We repent for treating your commands like suggestions. We have worshiped you with our lips but our hearts have been far from you, and that really hasn’t bothered us all that much. Our theology has not given rise to the doxology of which you are so very worthy.
We repent for accepting strained and broken relationships as our new normal. We repent of our critical gossipy hearts. We repent of keeping and re-reading a record of each other’s wrongs. We repent for making our repentance to be co-dependent on someone else’s repentance. We repent of letting the “good life” replace the grace life. We repent for looking more to better organization rather than the God of resurrection for changes in our churches.
We repent of nursing grudges rather feasting on the body and blood of Jesus. We repent for fertilizing our roots of bitterness rather than pursuing stories of reconciliation. We repent for expecting little from you and demanding more from one another. We repent for withdrawing from people without drawing close to you. We repent for getting used to cold, smug, indifferent hearts.
Father, you have already completely wiped out our sins by the cross of Jesus, but we now appropriate our once-and-for-all forgiveness for our very-present-and-obvious sins. Have mercy of us, have mercy on me the sinner. You appointed Jesus as our all-gracious Savior and we keep that appointment with him right now, yet again. We have no other righteousness. We have no other hope.
How we long for the Day when you will send Jesus back to restore everything, as promised by your holy prophets. But send him today, by the Spirit, to initiate promised times (plural!) of refreshing. May our repentances and your refreshing become way more notorious than our sins. So very Amen we pray, in Jesus’ loving and faithful name.