Thursday, July 3
Horse Sense and Bird Brains
I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done?" Each pursues his own course like a horse charging into battle.
Jeremiah 8:6 (New International Version)
In Jeremiah 8, the Lord expressed amazement that His people weren't repenting of their sins. He compared them to horses that rush headlong into battle. He said that even birds like storks and turtledoves have enough instinct to know the seasons and to fly in the right direction. "But my people do not know the judgment of the Lord," He said (verse 7).
True repentance always causes a change of direction.
True repentance is like the horse that stops in its tracks and turns around, or like the stork or turtledove that chooses the right migration currents. When we confess our sins, we're admitting them and accepting responsibility. When we repent, we're changing direction. It's important to do both, for as John Stott observed, "Sin and the child of God are incompatible. They may occasionally meet; they cannot live together in harmony."
You are the way you are because that's the way you want to be. If you really wanted to be any different, you would be in the process of changing right now.
Fred Smith
Read-Thru-the-Bible
Proverbs 9:1 - 11:31
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