perspective on repentance. The home should be a place where this
kind of authentic Christianity is nurtured and developed. It should be
a place where, when we sin and fail, we understand that there is repen-
tance and forgiveness. Then we will be able to walk out of our homes
into a waiting, watching world with a clean heart. Then we will be not
“sniping at issues,” but bringing hope to the world in the name of
Jesus Christ because we have first done business with God.
THEBLESSINGS OFRENEWAL
God says to Solomon that when these four requirements are met, then
He promises to do three amazing things:
God hears us. “Then I will hear from heaven” is something of a
double entendre. Literally, God hears our cry because we have met His
requirements; we have done what He has instructed us to do. But also,
when we do what God tells us to do, then we have the focused atten-
tion of heaven. Think of it. All of heaven’s resources are available to
us when we obey God!
I remember when our oldest daughter, Heather, was about two-
and-a-half years old. I was sitting in my favorite chair one day reading
the paper, and Heather was talking to me but I wasn’t giving her my
attention. She then jumped up on my lap, knocked the paper out of
my hands, grabbed my face with her two little hands, looked me
square in the eyes, and said, “Daddy, I talkin’ to you!” You see, Heather
didn’t just want my ears; she wanted my total attention. Our surren-
der and complete obedience to God grabs God’s heart and lines us up
for His favor and heaven’s resources.
We experience His forgiveness.Look at these sweet words: “will for-
give their sin.” God does not want His children to wallow in guilt. He
has made provision for their sin. Our problem is that we so often want
His blessing and favor without repentance. But there is no experien-
tial forgiveness without repentance. It is when we come to the end of
ourselves and acknowledge our sin and failure before Him that He
rushes to us and wraps His loving arms around us and whispers in our
ear that sweet word, “Forgiven.”
The sequence is important here. Before anything is said about the
Renewal in the Home 225