Making Things Right
Theme of the Week: What's to Confess?
Friday, May 15, 2009
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: If any of the people … betray the Lord by doing wrong to another person … they must confess their sin and make full restitution for what they have done (Numbers 5:6-7). Bonus Reading: Leviticus 6:1-7
When I first heard about the link between restitution and repentance," a man in my church wrote to me, "God immediately brought four situations to mind that I needed to make right. Driving home from church, I felt a burden to get this work done as soon as I could, but it was too late to call people. I determined to contact them first thing in the morning and fell asleep figuring out what I needed to say. I was excited with hope that these broken or strained relationships would be restored.
"But as I drove in to work next morning, thinking through all I needed to accomplish that day, from nowhere crept this thought, Why was I feeling so urgent about these four phone calls? Do it another day when you're not so busy. Gasp!
"I knew that thought didn't come from God. I couldn't get to my desk and to my phone calls fast enough. Sure, it wasn't easy, but it wasn't nearly as dreadful as I'd feared. Restitution was made, bringing amazing peace, release, and joy.
"Don't put off the hard and humbling work of restitution or you might never do it—blocking you from receiving all God has for you."
—James MacDonald in Downpour
My Response: An unresolved issue I need to clear up is …
Thought to Apply: You cannot build a bridge by starting in the middle. Bridge-builders begin from the side they are on. —John Paul Lederach (conflict resolution expert)
Adapted from Downpour (Broadman & Holman, 2006) by permission.
Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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My need to confess sin and be cleansed is as great as ever. Don't let me to pretend otherwise.
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