Is there a change?

Holy Week has come and gone. What’s different about your life?

You revisited the betrayal, the trial, the beatings, the denial. You walked beside Jesus as He carried His cross. You watched Him suspended on that cross and heard Him speak. You watched Him die. 

On Sunday you heard that He rose from the dead, and in Easter clothes you lifted Easter voices at an Easter service, and left. An Easter meal was waiting. Another year, another day. So, after considering Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, how are you different? How have you changed?

This story may sound familiar:

Two men went to church to pray. One was recognized, respected, religious. The other: disreputable, despised, debased.

The first, without hesitation, entered into the sanctuary, walked straight to the front of the room and  promptly addressed God (but really spoke to himself): “O God, look at me. I’m so glad I’m not like that hypocrite over there. I’m so glad that I’m not like that other person: why does she dress that way? I’m so glad I’m not like him: he must think he’s something! I’m so glad I’m not like that guy over there: You should have heard what I heard about him. I’m so glad that I’m not like that degenerate in the back of the church. The nerve! Coming to church after all HE’S done! You know, God, I have been coming to this church all my life. I go to Sunday School. I support fundraisers. O God, You must be as proud of me as I am of myself. I am recognized, respected, and religious.”

The second man sat at the back of the church – his face in his hands. In trepidation he had come. In shame he could not look up. With lowered eyes and a barely audible voice, he said, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner!”

Two men left the church that day. The first left unchanged. The second left reborn. (From Luke 18:9-14)

Have you been born again? Do you see any change in your life? Do you look on others with contempt? Have you used these few days after Holy Week to complain? Have you used those days to criticize and condemn others? Is you heart and life and  speech different?

And what are you trusting in today? Do you believe that anything you have done, ANYTHING will curry God’s favor and impress Him? Do you think you deserve better: better from your family, from your church, from God? Is it possible that you have managed to walk through the spiritual fire of holy Week, untouched, unscathed, unchanged?

If you have, then you have missed God. 

Holy Week is a time of remembering Jesus: His passion, crucifixion and resurrection. It is a time of reflection, self-examination and repentance. Repentance (metanoeō) means to change one’s mind for the better. It means to look with abhorrence at your sins and to really, truly change.

If you have not truly repented, truly changed these past few weeks, I invited you to pray this prayer of repentance. Please know that these are just words on a page, nothing more, unless they are spoken from the heart to the God who is real, to the God who loves you, to the God who has waited for you to come to Him.

I’m sorry Lord. Please forgive me. I have sinned before Your eyes, I have not taken seriously our relationship. My God have mercy on me, a sinner. I do not deserve to be called Your son/daughter. I do not deserve to call You “Father” for I have neglected You and sinned before You. I have wasted the time You have given me on this earth. I have buried the talent You placed in my safe keeping. I have not loved as You, O God, have loved. I have not really trusted Your Son. Forgive me I pray.

I come before you wearing the rags of destitution: the world’s profits. As the prodigal, I return and I ask You to restore me to Yourself. Even this, my confession is suspect for I cannot trust myself, my motives – but, still I come asking You to forgive me. Restore me to Yourself that I may know You and Your heart. I deserve nothing but refection and hell, but I come to You, not on my own merits, which are none, but on the merits of Jesus Christ: His mercy and grace. I turn to Jesus: receiving Him as Savior; trusting Him as Lord; desiring to know and love Him. I want no one. I want no thing except you, O God. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer not “religiously” but with sincerity, from the heart, you must know that God has forgiven you and accepted you as His own.