Week Four Repentance Day One Faith Builder Story

Psaml 51:10

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Ezekiel 18:30-32

30.  "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord God.  "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin.

31.  Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.  For why should you die, O house of Israel?

32.  For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies," says the Lord God.  "Therefore turn and live!"

Question 1.  What images, feelings, or reactions come to your mind when you think of repentance?

The one thing that always come to mind are saying ten 'Hail Mary's.'  This is from when I went to confession.  I always never liked that type because it seems so false.

I want to learn true repentance.  I am going to include psalm 51 in my list of daily prayers and discover other prayers of repentance in my Bible.

Bible verses are excellent,  Man-written ones that are used in church services are not God-inspired.  For personal uses such as in a journal are fine.

Question 2.  The faith builder story for this week is about a woman who needed to be controlling in her marriage.  She did not like the term of Serving Wife.  This caused the marriage to almost fall apart.  After listening to a radio broadcast-Revive Our Hearts-she realized she was wrong with her controlling ways and apologized to her husband and children.  Repenting gave her a change of heart.

What "keys do you see in this story that opened the door for her to experience personal revival?

She basically was controlling and the decision-maker in her life.

I am like the woman in the story.  I am the main bread-winner.  My husband is twelve years older than me and retired.  He is on a fixed income with Social Security and retired military pay.  I have to make the decisions of what bills need to be paid each week.  Since I make more money than him, I have to pay more than my share.  Sometimes when things get tight, I have to think outside of the box.  For example, I lowered the amount I was putting in my 401K each week so we could keep our heads above water.

I am also responsible for planning meals, cleaning house and so on.  So, yes, I do at times resent my husband.  Just recently I refused to wash dishes when I came home from work and the sink was full when I had them all caught up.  So yes I do resent him when he prefers to stay home and play on his computer.

I am not saying he is like this all the time.  He is heavily involved with the American Legion.

God will show me to be more submissive but not to the point where I lose it.

As a side note my husband does yard work including having a vegetable garden, mowing lawns and shoveling snow.  But if he helped out with the housework, I can help him with the other stuff.

Question 3.  Why do we often blame our circumstances or other people for our actions and our Spiritual condition?

We never want to blame ourselves.  We tend to make excuses.

Question 4.  Why is it so important to accept full responsibility for our own sins?

So we can be blameless as King David was.  He committed adultery and was a murderer..  God convicted him of his wrongdoing.  When David was made aware of his sin and confessed it to God he did not blame others.  He took full responsibility for it.

Question 5.  Psalm 111:59

I thought about my ways
And turned my feet to your testimonies.

How did the woman in the faith builder story illustrate genuine repentance?

She realized how she was treating her husband was the wrong way.  She changed by taking responsibility for the way she treated him.

Comments

Popular Posts