A Kingdom Heart

As our devotions for Lent continue, the focus shifts just a bit. We began pondering the question, “Why the cross?” and rested on sin as the heart of the reason. Last week, we asked God to help us to uncover any sins that we have either overlooked or ignored. Once we come face-to-face with our sin, we cry to God, “What must I do?” Peter responds to the same question on Pentecost with, “Repent and be baptized!” How can we be sure that we have honestly repented? The first step in repentance is to have a kingdom heart.

As we contemplate being a penitent individual, let’s take some time today to do a word study on repentance. Once we understand repentance, we will look at putting it into practice by looking at three psalms this week. Today, we will look at having a kingdom heart through a handful of verses from Psalm 42.

What Does It Mean to Repent?

What does it mean to repent? How can I be a penitent individual? Since we are studying in the Psalms during Lent, there are seven psalms which are labeled “Penitential Psalms.” They are Psalm 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130 and 143. These psalms express deep sorrow for sins, search diligently for God’s mercy, and request His forgiveness.

Many people have some common misunderstandings when they think about repentance. First, people think repentance means being sorry for an action. Of course sorrow is involved. The Cambridge Dictionary says that repentance is to be very sorry for something bad that you have done and to wish that you had not done it. Repentance is more than just a feeling.

Others believe that repentance means stopping. Here is a bad action that I have and now I am going to stop doing it. Again, there is some stopping probably involved in repentance, but it is bigger than just that.

Finally, many people believe that repentance comes from being caught. You were caught in your sins and so now you are almost forced to repent. If I understand repentance correctly, we need to be repentant whether we have been caught in a sin or not.

So today, let’s do a little word study about this concept of repentance. Then let’s think about repentance in three steps this week – drawing on passages from three different Psalms.

Studying the Word

The Acts 2:38 passage is probably the most well-known verse which contains the word “repent,” but the verb is scattered throughout the Old and New Testaments. The word is a compound presenting the ideas of meta (μετά ), a preposition indicating direction. The word meta in Greek is often translated “across.”

We became familiar with the word “meta” recently when Facebook changed the name of its parent company to “meta.” In addition to the connection with the “metaverse,” the new name represents the attempt to bring a message “across” the channels of social media: Facebook, Instagram, What’s App.

The other part of the word is the verb naheo (νοέω ), the Greek word for mind.  Literally, the two words mean “to move from one position of the mind to another” or “to alter the direction of the mind.” Over time, the nuance of the word has come to mean “to change one’s mind” about bad behavior or about Jesus.

Changing Our Mind

So when we are told to repent, what are we to change our mind about? Sometimes the context makes it very specific. On the Day of Pentecost, the people were told to repent – to change their mind about Jesus. Instead of being seen as a rebel, the people should embrace Jesus as God’s Messiah.

When we talk about repenting of our sins, the change of mind needs to be how we think about sin.  Pause a moment to ponder how humans have perceived sin for centuries. First, we consider, “Is this really sin?” We will debate, allow social and cultural changes, and even look for loop-holes in what the Bible has presented. The action no longer is a sin, but simply a choice.

The second thing we consider, “Is this really my fault?” follows close behind. If I cannot escape the lable of sin, perhaps I can place the blame elsewhere. Doesn’t that sound like Adam? “The woman who you gave me made me taste the fruit.” If I cannot blame someone else, I will look to blame the circumstances. “I know it’s stealing, but my children were starving.”

Finally, we simply run and hide. “If God cannot see me, I haven’t sinned.” Adam and Eve did the same thing. They hid in the bushes. The Scripture says they covered their nakedness, but I wonder whether they just tried to cover themselves so their skin didn’t stand out. They wanted to blend in with the trees. Isn’t it interesting that we want to do the very same thing with our sin? We will cover the sins over so that we blend in with the rest of society. Maybe God won’t notice where we are and what we’ve done.

Owning and Accepting

Instead of brushing off the idea of my sin, I need to “own it,” as they say. I accept how God defines sin and I own up to my responsibility for the choices I have made. In and of itself, the change in attitude toward sin will be huge.

But there are three things we need to do to make repentance sincere and meaningful. Let’s look at Psalm 42 for the first step in creating a sincere repentance – a kingdom heart.

As a deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God!
2 I thirst for God,
for the living God.
I say, “When will I be able to go and appear in God’s presence?”
3 I cannot eat; I weep day and night.
All day long they say to me, “Where is your God?”
4 I will remember and weep

Psalm 42:1-4 NET

The first step in sincere repentance is to long for God’s presence and to realize there is something that has come between you and God. The desire for the closeness to God upsets every other part of your life. You cannot eat. You cannot sleep. Somehow, you remember how that close intimacy with God actually feels – you miss it and you weep. Your spirit is developing a kingdom heart.