Repentance

Re:Verse passage – Nehemiah 1:4–11 (day four)

Repentance is a humbling exercise. It’s challenging enough to reflect on our daily shortcomings and sin at a personal level, but knowing how to engage in repentance at the corporate level is especially difficult. We look around at the sin and destruction in the world and feel our spirits groaning to repent, but how do we repent for something we may or may not have had an active part in? How do we repent for something that seems bigger than us, or something that happened before our time?

Nehemiah repented for his own sins, the sins of his family, and the sins of the Israelites. He repented for his direct sin, but also sins with which he was indirectly related. Nehemiah knew that whether or not he played a leading role in a particular sin issue among the Israelites, that issue of sin impacted his own spiritual life and that of generations to come. He could have stood by and pointed out what awful shape the world was in, shaking his head at his neighbors. He could have turned to self-righteousness and held a holier-than-thou attitude. Instead, he repented. He repented for the sins of his people that were much bigger than him or his family. This takes humility and a genuine longing to see the movement of God in the world and the restoration that only He can bring.

Complaining about the state of the world is easy. Repentance is harder. Only one of those options leads to renewal. When you look around and see the results of sin and destruction in the world around you, what will you choose?