Repent, renounce all your offences, avoid all occasions for guilt. Shake off all the misdeeds you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit… repent and live.
Ezekiel 18:30, 31,32b
We may not heed every warning we receive in our lives, but many of us have taken advice when it was in our best interest. Many have quit smoking, started eating healthier, and now exercise to some extent. We see doctors regularly, take vitamins, wear seat belts, and so on. We do all this in order to achieve a quality of life that makes us “feel good.”
But how do we nourish our souls? What can we do? What action will help us live out this passage? Let us turn to page 352 of The Book of Common Prayer for guidance: “Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.”
Let us not just read this – with God’s help, let us LIVE this. Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Repent and live.
Earl Buffaloe
