Jan. 27
PRECIOUS REPENTANCE
"And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings,
wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your
own sight for all your evils that ye have committed." Ezek. 20:43
When we are accepted of the Lord, and are standing in the place of
favor, and peace, and safety, then we are led to repent of all our
failures and miscarriages toward our gracious God. So precious is
repentance, that we may call it a diamond of the first water, and this
is sweetly promised to the people of God as one most sanctifying
result of salvation. He who accepts repentance, also gives repentance;
and He gives it not out of "the bitter box," but from among those
"wafers made with honey" on which He feeds His people. A sense of
blood-bought pardon and of undeserved mercy, is the best means of
dissolving a heart of stone. Are we feeling hard? Let us think of
covenant love, and then we shall leave sin, lament sin, and loathe
sin; yea, we shall loathe ourselves for sinning against such infinite
love. Let us come to God with this promise of penitence, and ask Him
to help us to remember, and repent, and regret, and return. Oh, that
we could enjoy the meltings of holy sorrow! What a relief would a
flood of tears be! Lord, smite the rock, or speak to the rock, and
cause the waters to flow!