Repent the Day Before You Die!

August 2, 2016

by: Rebecca Brimmer, International President and CEO

God is yearning for human beings, created in His image, to repent of their evil ways and turn to Him. The Bible outlines His perfect plan for mankind. Throughout the centuries men have continually rebelled against their Creator. Patiently, God repeatedly calls them back to Himself. He promises the restoration of our land if we will seek Him and repent.

 “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).

The word translated “turn” in this passage is shuv (שוב). It is the root of the Hebrew word for repentance—teshuvah (תשובה)! Repentance is different from saying you are sorry. Repentance is a heart deep sorrow over one’s sins and a turning to face the opposite direction with a determination to sin no more. Yeshua, when presented with the woman caught in adultery, said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (John 8:11). Today many call for Christians to not condemn sinners. While Yeshua certainly modeled love for us, He also expected the woman to repent—“Go and sin no more.” We are thankful for God’s grace and forgiveness, but we must understand that His mercy is not a license to sin.

This is the most urgent need of our times. The body of Christ (Messiah) needs to devote itself to seeking God in humility and prayer and to repent. As concerned believers we must repent on behalf of our own sin, and then seek God’s mercy for our family, church, community and nation.

In 1863, in a national proclamation of prayer and repentance, President Abraham Lincoln wrote, “We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand, which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness” (The Presidential Prayer Team website).

Many say that God’s judgment is coming and certainly He would be justified in acting with His strong arm. What should our response be? We need to humble ourselves and pray. We need to repent! We need to turn from our wicked ways. We need to ask God for His mercy. Just as He would have saved Sodom and Gomorrah at Abraham’s request, if only ten righteous men were found, so we can pray that for the sake of the righteous, God will show us His mercy rather than His judgment. As the Church of the Lord Yeshua, we need to be a bright shining light of goodness and righteousness in the midst of darkness.

During the 40 days leading up to Yom Kippur (the biblical Day of Atonement), there is a special emphasis on repentance. We think it would be very powerful to have both Christians and Jews turning their hearts toward God during this time. Cheryl Hauer and I have written a book entitled Repent the Day Before You Die:  A 40 day Devotional Journey. Please join with us and the Jewish nation in this special 40 day time of repentance from September 2, 2016 through October 12, 2016.

If you would like to order this book, contact your national BFP office or click “Shop” at the top of this website.