I remember a time when my parents asked me to not watch a certain movie. I didn’t listen to them, and instead snuck into the theater with a friend to see it, telling my parents I was seeing a different movie. Afterward, I felt bad. I knew I had lied to my parents and watched a movie that wasn’t good for me to see.
You’ve probably messed up like that too. Maybe you’ve lied, or done the wrong thing. As Christians, we should be moving toward maturity in our walk with God through repentance. But here’s the question: what does that look like?
Most of the time, it looks like wanting to do whatever the Holy Spirit or the Bible shows us. Back to the example of sneaking into the movie. Let’s say that before I snuck into the movie, I didn’t know how wrong my actions were. After sneaking into the movie, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that I shouldn’t be doing that and I should be telling the truth to my parents.
If I repented, that would mean that I changed my thinking and my actions to line up with what God says about an issue. So for me, repentance would look like me stopping lying to my parents and sneaking into movies they told me not to watch. I should change my actions as a result of my repentance.
It’s okay not to know something is wrong. But once you do, you should desire to change and move into maturity as a believer. That’s what a true follower of Jesus looks like. As He shows you things in your life to change, you should love Him and want to change to be more like Him.
Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, – Hebrews 6:1 (NIV)
So today, challenge yourself to do what this verse says. Decide to repent and change your actions and thoughts as your knowledge of God’s word grows. God loves you and wants you to grow into maturity in Him!
