Repentance and the blood of Christ

Key verse
1 Thessalonians 4:7 - For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.


2 Chronicles
2 Chronicles 7:13-14 - “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, 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 will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
God's love manifests itself in different forms.  If we repent and obey, he is kind and compassionate and slow to anger.  But if we have heard his commands and yet disobey, He will not hesitate to punish us.  Not that we have to fear fire from God every time we do something wrong, but we can't rest on  our laurels thinking that God has promised only to do good to us, even if we do bad.  Look at King Solomon.  God told him, right after verses 13 and 14, that yes, if they repented, he would save them.  But, if Solomon did not respect God's law and instead followed pagan gods, God would certainly send Israel into exile and destroy the temple Solomon had just built for Him.
Our good deeds will never save us.  Only the blood of Jesus, come with the new covenant, can cover our sin and intercede for us when we go off the trail.

God works in us

Key verse
Luke 5:32 - [Jesus said,] "I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Philippians
Phil 2:13 - "... for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose."
Sort of stemming from yesterday's post on considering others better than ourselves, which is a hard thing to do, this verse brings some good news.  We aren't in it by ourselves!  Not that we can sit back and enjoy the ride, as we do have to bring 100% effort to the relationship, but what we lack, God brings.  So when we set our minds to following his purposes, He'll jump in and help us out!  That's awesome.

Godly sorrow

2 Corinthians
Sometimes, sorrow and grief are necessary.  As Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 7, we need to feel the pain of our mistakes in order to correct our behaviour and move on.  The key is that this sorrow comes from God's Spirit in us. Sometimes we can feel bad for no reason and try to change ourselves, or we feel bad because we got caught.  With godly sorrow, God's Spirit in us will work on our conscience and we'll be grieved because we disobeyed God.  When the Holy Spirit is involved, we have a far better chance at repentance and new life than we would on our own.
When you experience grief, sorrow, or guilt over your actions or lifestyle, ask God to work in your heart and he can renew you.