4:1-35 The instructions for a sin-offering are given.
We now combat our transgressions through repentance. We do not require a physical symbol of our sin; we are able to speak directly and honestly with God about our mistakes. Repentance is a promise and also a gentle mercy from God. Not only is the opportunity a blessing, but so is the reason and the outcome. God offers repentance because He wants to help us. It hurts Him to see us broken, living broken and breaking others.
The process of repentance is God love illuminating our lives. Through time spent with Him, He sends revelations. He teaches us about ourselves, about the world, communities and homes and circumstances we live in. He broadens our perspective and then gives us the perception to understand and interpret. He reveals our brokenness and then offers to heal.
The process of sin-offering was a primitive step to doing the aforementioned. God has always created ways for us to reach Him and to receive His mercy and wisdom. The same thing is required for both: our willingness and our faith. God does not require us to repent because He wants to punish... no, God wants to HEAL and healing happens through compassionate discipline. Instruction.
When we present our mistakes to Him, He is able to see all sides of it. All of the areas that need healing and caused harm. It then becomes a mutual effort: God gives us the knowledge and the opportunity to improve. Participating is repentance. To become an actively-participant student of His is to repent.
When we give God our trust, we make this declaration: I do not know better. In fact, maybe I know nothing at all. But you do God. You know all things; you are willing to teach. I present myself to You as a student. I want to learn. I want to work. I want to participate in my own growth led by You.
Our declaration is an iteration of something a man named John said once before in John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease. We must give God the room to fill the spaces we have crowded with our own misguided desires. We must never let His blessings become blocked by resistance. Sometimes we do not even realize that any resistance exists: we cram our hearts with desires we think we want and think we need but are actually bad for us. We cram our thoughts and motivate our actions in pursuit of things that might not necessarily be bad but are not as good as God wants to give.
Stop blocking blessings with unworthy things. Decrease. Drain those desires. Make space for Him. Clear your heart and soul and mind and allow Him to pour in. His love and wisdom and blessing is a cleansing. It all It all starts with making the declaration.
