Jonathan Dodson has some helpful thoughts on repentance at his blog. He notes that there are three key things that must happen when we repent: confession, mortification (this means putting to death), and faith. He then gives a question for each to help you in the fight. For confession, we ask, “What do I want most?” For mortification we ask, “What lie am I believing when I do X?” For faith we ask, “What promises are opposite the lies I believe?”
From my example in the previous post of my own sin I would answer them this way.
1. I wanted money and financial security most.
2. I was believing the lie that God would not meet my needs and the lie that money would take care of me.
3. Two of the promises I needed to believe (and eventually did believe again) are that God will supply all my need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19) and that God works all things for good for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28 – even finanicial difficutly).
I am ashamed to say that I struggle with understanding what these promises are. Sometimes I wonder what it might look like if God did not meet my needs. What would that visually look like? What if I could not pay rent, debt, mortgage, food, medical bills, etc.? What if I lose my residence, wife, kids, even my life? Would God cease to be faithful? Of course not! But that leaves me with the question: what am I really trusting that God would provide for me when I trust that God would supply all my needs?
I don’t know the answer fully. I can testify to the positive: that God has met all of my needs by his mercy to me, all of which has been bought by Jesus. But to the negative, of what could happen to me that others could point to and say that God did not supply my needs, I have no answer, and that leaves me feeling uneasy.
These are hard questions and this is exactly what I was asking after the death of our son. What does it mean to say that God is faithful when he heals someone? People say this often after they pray and God answers. What about the times when we pray and God doesn’t answer (at least not the in the way we hope)? People all over the world were praying for the life of our son. He still died. Was God faithful then? Certainly. We need to refocus on what the promises of God truly are. He doesn’t promise good health and long life on earth. He promises eternal life and complete joy with him. He is faithful. I have seen his faithfulness. He has been faithful to keep us. He has been faithful to never leave us. These are the promises we must cling to.