Right About Face

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” — Acts 3:19 (KJV)

Repentance is one of the most important words in the Bible, and Moody says it is one of the most misunderstood. So he begins with what repentance is not.

It is not fear. He talks about sailors who swear constantly but pray loudly during a storm, and then go straight back to swearing when the storm passes. They were scared, but they didn’t repent.

It is not just feeling bad. Moody used to preach in a prison in Baltimore. He says nearly every prisoner felt miserable at first and many cried for days, but when they got out, most went straight back to their old ways. “They felt very bad because they had got caught; that was all.”

It is not punishing yourself. Moody says that fasting or afflicting your body does not make you repent of a single sin. That is never what God asks.

It is not just giving up one sin. Moody says breaking off one sin is like cutting one branch off a tree, “when the whole tree has to come down.” Or like plugging one leak in a ship that has three or four holes.

So what is repentance? Moody gives a simple definition:

“I will give you a good definition: it is “right about face!””

That is a soldier’s command to turn round and face the opposite direction. Repentance means you were walking one way, away from God, and you turn round and walk the other way, towards him.

Moody points to Jesus’ story of two sons. A father asked the first son to work in the vineyard, and he said, “I will not.” But afterwards he changed his mind and went. That, says Moody, is repentance: not just thinking “I was wrong”, but actually going.

And it doesn’t take months. “It does not take a long while to turn around.” Moody tells of a ship heading for the rocks off Newfoundland. There was a moment when the captain could have reversed the engines and saved it. Then the moment passed. Moody says there is a moment in everyone’s life when they can say, “By the grace of God I will go no further.” He urges his readers not to wait.

One thing to do this week: think of one area of your life where you know you are walking the wrong way. This week, do a “right about face”: tell God you are turning round, and take one concrete step in the opposite direction.