God’s Perfect Gift

We've been blessed. Whether we're consciously aware of it or not, every good thing we enjoy here on earth is a gift from our steadfast Heavenly Father above. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, our health, our friends and families, even our very life. And beyond this life, the Bible tells us that by faith, we have other gifts as well: the gift of grace (Ephesians 3:7), the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8), the gift of righteousness (Romans 5:17), the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:45), the gift of salvation (Romans 6:23). There are others, too, and in this edition of "Soul Feast," I'd like to talk about one gift in particular, a gift that's absolutely essential to walking in victory over sinful eating habits. That gift is called repentance.

Before we talk about what repentance is, let's take a moment to look at a couple things repentance is not.

First, repentance is not regret. In fact, I'd almost dare go so far as to say that regret is Satan's substitute for repentance. Why? Because regret seems to put us on the right track but doesn't take us to the finish line. I look at my sin and the consequences thereof, and I feel bad. Really bad. Really, really, really bad. "What a wretch I am, a miserable wretch. I blew it again! Oh, Lord, I'll never get this right! How can You put up with me?"

Do you see it? Regret is me-centered. It's me, beating myself up for something I've done.

Repentance, on the other hand, is God-centered. It has nothing to do with my self-esteem or feeling good about myself or treating myself right. Repentance is about getting back into right relation with the holy God I've offended.

Second, repentance is not conviction. Now unlike regret, conviction is a step in the right direction, but conviction still misses the mark. I may be entirely persuaded that my actions are wrong, but continue along the same way nonetheless.

Can you think of someone in the Bible who was convinced but not repentant? A few come to mind, but for the moment, let's look at the story of Balaam in Numbers, chapters 22-24.

Israel had escaped Egypt and begun their forty year march through the wilderness. With the Lord's help, they'd defeated the Canaanites and the Amorites and were now camped in the plains of Moab. Balak, king of Moab, knew what had happened to the Amorites, and he and his people were more than a little unnerved by this hoard of Israelites parked next door. So Balak decided to ask Balaam, a local prophet, to come down and curse Israel for him.

In Numbers 22, Balak's governing officials arrive at Balaam's house, and right off, God tells Balaam, "You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed" (verse 12). Pretty straightforward, I'd say, and Balaam obediently sends the king's men home.

But Israel isn't going away, so determined King Balak sends a bigger and more impressive entourage to Balaam, promising him an even richer reward, and in his greedy heart Balaam thinks, "Hmmm... Well, they've traveled all this way, it won't hurt to have them spend the night, and who knows, maybe God's reconsidered."

And God, knowing Balaam's stubbornness says, OK fine, go with them, "but only do what I tell you" (verse 20).

Think maybe Balaam's heart wasn't with God? I do, and I'm going to read a little into the story here and guess that maybe Balaam deliberately chose to interpret God's consent to go, as consent to curse Israel, so that's what he was going down to do. After all, he may have reasoned, why would God change His mind about going unless God had changed His mind? Make sense?

But God--so as to clear up any misunderstandings, I'm imagine--sent His angel on ahead of Balaam to meet him in the road and get the message across loud and clear: God has not changed His mind!

We know the rest of the story. Before the angel's sword meets Balaam's skull, his donkey intervenes and Balaam's life is saved. Humbled, Balaam continues on his way with Balak but listens to God and blesses Israel. A happy ending, right? Wrong.

Flip ahead and read Jesus' words in Revelations 2:14,

You see, in spite of everything, Balaam remained unrepentant. He was convicted; he was convinced, and he even did the right thing, but Balaam never turned aside from his course of self-will and wrongdoing (2 Peter 2:15). Eventually, he lost his life to the Israelites (Joshua 13:22), but not before giving Balak the strategy he needed to defeat God's people another way. Repentance is not conviction.

Okay, so what is repentance? You've probably heard the comparison of repentance to driving a car down the highway, realizing you're heading the wrong way, and turning the car around to go back the other way. I've also heard repentance described as a sword with two edges. The first edge is that painful steel blade of "What have I done!" that cuts to the heart, where we understand our sin and repent; and the second edge is where we cease from sin, and to the best of our ability, make reparation for damage done.

But even description that falls a bit short, I think, and Judas Iscariot is an illustration of this. We read in the gospels how Judas deeply regretted having betrayed Jesus. He understood he'd done wrong and even tried to go back and make things right.

But that was as far as Judas went. When the chief priests threw the matter back into his lap, Judas gave in to despair and hanged himself.

Repentance can't end with despair, because repentance isn't sorrow over having broken a rule. Repentance is sorrow over having broken Jesus' heart! I suspect Judas never followed through in his repentance because, despite having lived with our Lord for three years, Judas Iscariot never loved Christ and never understood Christ's love for him.

That kind of repentance--the kind that brings us back into right relation with God--is anything but hopeless. Why? Because repentance brings the Father joy, and we share in His joy!

Did you catch that? In His presence is fullness of joy! The longing of God's heart is for us to be returned to a place of close fellowship with Him and with one another.

In his book, One Thing You Can't Do in Heaven, Mark Cahill describes repentance this way:

"I recently heard a gentleman on a Christian television show speaking about ancient Hebrew. He said that in Hebrew "repent" literally means "burning down the house and salting the field." When you salt the field, you cannot grow anything. So if you burn down your house and salt the field, what do you have to go back to? Nothing. What a great word picture of repentance." (pp. 132-133)

So to sum it all up and apply this to sinful eating habits, repentance is a gift from God, for which we must ask God.

Repentance isn't feeling bad about overeating or having gained weight. It's being convicted that our eating habits are wrong, and more than that, turning from that wrong course and setting ourselves up not to practice those things again. It's "burning down the house and salting the field."

Gratefully His,
Lynda Braun, Team Member
Setting Captives Free

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