Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that the times of refreshing may come from the Lord,  Acts 3:19 NIV

Last night my husband and I were blessed to have the opportunity to take our five year old niece to see a preview of The Star.  This is an animated movie about Jesus’ birth told from the viewpoint of the animals.  It was a really good movie and I highly recommend it for your youngster.  I had told my niece it was a Christmas movie and it provided a great opportunity for discussion as she was expecting snow and Christmas trees and presents.  So we were able to discuss the fact that this was the very first Christmas when Jesus was born, not just the day that we celebrate his birthday as we do now in December.

The story follows the Bible but they did add a couple of vicious dogs in the script who had been sent out by King Herod to sniff out Mary and her newborn.  I was so pleased that my niece realized that this was not in the Bible, but had been added to the story.  These dogs were controlled by a large man in a scary helmet and they were trying to find Mary and baby Jesus as Herod wanted the new King to die.  Spoiler alert: my niece and I agreed that the best part of the movie was when the dogs had their collars removed and broke free of their mean master.

You see sin is like a mean master.  It ties us up and drags us along.  I have often heard it said that sin will take you farther than you ever intended to go and keep you there longer than you want to stay.  You see at first sin looks enticing.  It looks like something that will be very pleasurable.  But then once it reels us in, it becomes like a noose around our neck.  Often times it is very hard to escape sin.

Today’s scripture passage tells us to repent.  That sounds so simple doesn’t it.  Just repent.  Well if you are feeling weighed down by the sin in your life, if it feels as though you are in quicksand and there is no way out, let me tell you something.  There is a way out.  That way is through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.  My friend, I don’t care how low you have sunk in your sin, his arms are long enough to reach out to you and pull you out.

When we repent and turn to God, He doesn’t turn away.  He is there for us.  Only He can wipe our sins away.  The Bible tells us that if we forgive others, He will be faithful to forgive us.  The Bible also tells us that if we repent, He will forgive our sins and remove them as far from us and Him as the east is from the west.  When we repent and turn to God, He not only forgives our sins, He wipes them out.  They are gone and forgotten.

Now once this takes place, then the refreshing may come from the Lord.  The Lord will refresh us and renew our minds.  The Bible tells us that we become new creatures and that our old sinful past is removed from us.

We have all seen those commercials and print ads.  You know the ones where some extremely handsome person is glistening with sweat and drinks a soda, an energy drink, a sports drink or even an alcoholic drink and they are instantly refreshed.  Well let me tell you something the refreshment that we get from God is like no other.  I know from personal experience.

The devil does not want us to repent and turn to God.  The devil wants us to keep being our old sinful, weary, burdened selves.  So, he will try his best to keep us in sin.  But we know that God is so much stronger than the devil.  We know that God always wins.

So today if you are weary and burdened by sin in your life, repent and turn to God.  Experience the type of refreshment that only God can give.  Don’t let the devil try to drag you back down.  Don’t let him burden you with guilt about past sins.  Stay close to God and stay focused on God and the devil won’t stand a chance.

So what are you waiting for, repent, turn to God and be refreshed!

Have a great day!