Repentance leads to divinely refreshing grace, mercy

A rumble of thunder and a lightning flash greeted me recently as I walked out to our barn to feed the dogs. It startled me, big time.

Then I heard the dance of raindrops on the barn’s metal roof, and I have to confess I laughed out loud. How refreshing! It had been so long since we’ve seen rain around here.

Outside the barn, raindrops kicked up dust around the yard, which I had stopped watering when we got the last water bill.

Our recent storm didn’t last too long, but it provided some relief and a promise of more refreshing rain to come. It also reminded me of the Apostle Peter’s sermon recorded in Acts 3: “Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. …” (Acts 3:19).

The relationship with God we enjoy by faith in Jesus Christ is the ultimate refreshment for our thirsty souls. We are blessed to live during this season – or dispensation – of God’s refreshing grace and mercy.

Of all the refreshing things we will ever experience, nothing compares to the refreshing rain of God’s love and mercy.

Have you experienced it?

Notice in the words of Peter that we are invited to choose whether to enjoy God’s grace: “Repent, therefore, and be converted. …”

Repentance is not a popular topic these days, not even in many churches. It is a word that seems old and unkind.

For some, the very word conjures the caricature of a bony-fingered accuser shouting about fire and brimstone.

Forget that cliché. In truth, God does not harangue us into believing in him.

He lovingly, patiently and mercifully invites us to receive his righteousness in exchange for our sinfulness.

The Bible says our sinfulness is punishable by death, but God offers us the death of his son, Jesus, as our substitute. God invites each of us to change course, to stop pursuing whatever pleases us and start living for him.

Repentance is not merely being sorry about our sinfulness, but turning away from that sin and placing our trust in God rather than ourselves.

The apostle also encourages us to be converted, or changed. This kind of conversion is so much more than “turning over a new leaf” or trying really hard to be better.

It is a radical change in who we are, a transformation that is begun, carried out, and ultimately will be completed by the grace of God.

Repentance and conversion open the floodgates of God’s grace. His unmerited favor belongs to those who repent and are converted. This refreshing shower of grace begins with turning away from ourselves and turning toward God.

What a joy it is to know that God does not forgive the way you and I do. So often when we forgive, we really just move on but remember full well the debt owed by those who’ve wronged us.

By his grace, God promises not to hold our sins against us. Jesus already has paid sin’s penalty of death. It is a refreshing thing indeed to enjoy the fullest love and forgiveness of our creator, despite our imperfections.

For many Christians, this experience of God’s refreshing grace seems distant, without much bearing on today and tomorrow. For them, there is a longing to be newly refreshed.

Happily, that is also God’s desire. Peter said that our “times of refreshing” come from the presence of the Lord.

When we live with an awareness of God’s presence, when our minds are fed by the Scriptures and our lives ordered by his leading, we experience his unlimited grace.

Do you long for refreshment? Does your spirit thirst for the fresh, relevant and rejuvenating presence of God?

Consider the words of the apostle: “Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”