Back spams and perspective

Acts 3: 19 Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.  NASB

Now it’s time to change your ways!  Turn to face God so he can wipe away your sins, pour out showers of blessing to refresh you, The Message

Eugene Peterson puts it so clearly in The Message, change your ways and face God. God is not just interested in getting rid of the sins we have committed in the past because he knows there is so much more than our past.  He is interested in our future!  Sin never ends well, and sin – even forgiven – tends to hang around in our memory and has the potential to exert all kinds of destructive consequences.

God wants us to look at him, and in looking at him we will have the right perspective on life.  We will want to change our ways because we will understand better who he is, how much he loves us, what he has done and will do for us. Our problem is that it is too easy to go through the motions, confessing our sin, the ones we can remember easily, then go back to regular life, that place where we wade into sin without even realizing it.

He wants us to face him, to look into his eyes, getting his perspective on all that pertains to life as we know it.  I wonder if the way we are to change is not just this: looking at him instead of at people.  We are all too familiar with peer pressure, and too many of us succumb to the power of the crowd too naturally because that is where our gaze is.

And He wants to shower blessings on us; He wants us to experience times of refreshing.  I don’t know about you, but I could use more times of refreshing.  This week I was laid still with muscle spasms in my back, not a brand new malady, so I knew what to do.  Find the hot pad and secure it in my recliner (a smaller one) so I could rest against it.  Take muscle relaxers (usually for about a day and a half) and then pursue stillness.  I wonder, as I rehearse that, if God knew I needed a time of refreshing, and He was going to give it to me…since He knew I was not going there myself.  You know how it is with a family wedding this next weekend... all the things to do that make stillness so hard to attain.

If we could keep our eyes on him, I wonder if we would face fewer temptations, more quickly overcome the ones that are there, and savor the experience the blessings of his presence.