Having confessed to being a backsliding blogger, my husband pertly asked whether my confession was remorse or real repentance. Good point. If remorse is simply regret or sorrow and if repentance is turning from one way of being or living in order to embrace the right way... well, here is blog number 2, just 2 days later. So let`s call it repentance. Oh, and I`m not a backslidden blogger anymore, so we can ditch that label. Sometimes we can have a change of heart about something, but it doesn`t change our lives unless we make the choice to do something about it. Living out our faith and core values has as much to do with choices in the heart as it does with convictions. We can believe something, but if we don`t do anything about that belief, then what is accomplished?
And living out our convictions or carrying a decision through usually involves commitment and hard work. It isn`t always easy sticking to your principles. It certainly isn`t easy learning to think and live a different way after we have come to a point of repentance. That`s why God graces us.
Grace isn´t something that eliminates the need for us to stick to our principles and decisions. No. Grace is given to empower us so that we can stick to those principles. So that we can put in the hard work needed. So that our characters can truly be formed. So that we become people who endure.
Titus 2:11&12 The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us to say no to ungodliness.
