Catching the Wave – Repentance

There was a reason it was called “old man’s beach” I thought to myself as I paddled out to get in position to catch a wave. I was exhausted as wave after wave knocked me off my board. When I finally reached the intended destination, I was way too fatigued to even attempt catching any sort of wave. It took all my strength to hang on to to the board and stay afloat, I felt old and out of “surf shape.”`

Spiritually speaking do you ever feel exhausted? Out of shape? Weary from swimming against the current? Perhaps God is calling you to refine and refocus your attention back to our Father God. It is so easy to become overwhelmed by the chaos of our lives, the future of the church, and crisis’ of our country. How easily our souls become spiritually out of shape and gradually secularized by the seduction of the world around us. In order to “catch the next wave” repenting in prayer and asking for our Father to respond with His Holy Spirit is essential.

There is an old phrase that says the world was made for the body, the body made for the soul, and the soul was made for God. Satan continues to reverse that order. He attempts to push our souls farther and farther away from God enticing us to bring glory to ourselves and focus so much of our time on the idols of this world. And where it has gotten us? As we have taken God out of our homes, churches, schools, business, arts, government, etc. our souls have become empty. And when the soul is empty the enemy will seek to fill it with all kinds of evil.

An empty, weary, soul can only be restored by Repentance. The word means to turn away from the world and turn back to the Father’s love. Romans 2:4 says:

…His kindness leads to repentance..

It is the love and kindness of the Spirit of God, which refines us, refocuses us, and then restores our souls through repentance. You and I live in a secular culture that has pushed Christ out of every sphere of life and has ravished our souls. However I believe the Spirit is seeking to awaken our souls to turn back to the lover of our souls via repentance. 

Sometimes it is a constant struggle with self and the world and I find when I focus on either of these I allow my soul to be barely hanging on and exhausted from paddling on my own. Yet, when I refocus and repent I gain strength from the most important relationship-the relationship with the Jesus, the lover of my soul. Often it is a daily necessity to cry out and ask for the resurrecting power of Jesus Christ to help me return to the Father’s love.

Is there a specific area in your life that is consumed by the world and left your soul feeling desperate? Cry out to Christ Jesus and His powerful work on the cross to forgive you and release you from whatever strongholds of this world are captivating you. May you return to the Father’s arms of love and hold on to this promise:

“Return to me and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty!

Malachi 3:7