Repent Now or Repent Later?

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison.”

Matthew 5:25

Let me list for you five areas in a person’s life that

 give evidence of the Lordship of Christ.

They are:

Seeks daily direction from God

Seeks daily correction from God

Seeks daily protection from God

Seeks daily guidance from God

Seeks daily companionship from God

Let’s look a little more closely at daily correction.

What do you do when somewhere offers you some corrective counsel?

What if they offered that counsel to you every day?

Would you value it or would you start going out of your way to avoid that person?

God can bring that correction to our walk on a “real-time” basis. In other words, He can bring the conviction of His Spirit into our lives at the moment we need that correction. Why does it not seem to work that way some times?

Maybe it’s because we are so determined in that moment

to do things our way or to bring our opinions to bear on a matter.

If that is the case, then we are usually not truly prepared to receive the correction that we most need to hear. They say that “hindsight is 20/20” and there is certainly biblical instruction for self-examination, but what if we were so hungry to make Him Lord of our lives that we could receive on-the-spot correction and move on with what He has for us. The blessing of receiving immediate correction can be viewed as two-fold.

First, we have repented when the situation has occurred, not allowing the rebellion against God (aka SIN) to incubate. Second, the more immediate our response to God and correct what needs to be corrected, the less “collateral damage” (as the military likes to say) can occur. In other words, the impact of that sin to ourselves

and others can be reduced.

Maybe you think today’s scripture verse is a stretch to apply in this situation since we are washed in the blood of the Lamb as believers.

But why let sin linger before dealing with it?

Why not receive the correction of God when it is offered and move on in His purposes. It beats the alternative of letting it grieve the Spirit of God when He has already provided the solution for it!