Double Whammy
Repent, therefore, and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 3:19
Return – We know the word for repent. It is a word that means to change the place of your mind. In Hebrew, it is the word for full-person distress that causes us to act in an effort to receive benevolence on behalf of a superior. Repentance is the first step toward obedience.
But there is another word. It is epistrepho. Here it is translated “return.” Often it is translated “convert.” The ideas are the same because this word, just like repent, is filled with Hebrew thought. This is the equivalent to the Hebrew word shuv – to return to the Lord. When Peter spoke to those gathered in Jerusalem, he used a word that they would all have known. Come back to God. Return. This is the other side of the repentance coin. When I reach the limit of my disobedience and fall on my face in abject humiliation, I am seeking a way back. I want to come home. On the other side of my repentance is the offer of grace as a return to the God that I have abandoned. He is still there, waiting for me. Epistrepho is the positive side of the act of contrition. It is the completion of God’s offer of forgiveness.
Did you notice that Peter uses both of these words, the negative and the positive? You get the full package when you arrive at this place. The goal is simple –that your sins might be wiped away so you will experience times of refreshing. Isn’t that what we really want? What good is life filled with my agendas and desires if there are no times of refreshing? And how can I have times of refreshing in a world that is always vulnerable to instant disaster unless I am refreshed by the One Who controls the universe? How many people have discovered upon attainment of life-long goals that the end does not satisfy? How many more have learned, too late, that success does not guarantee happiness, nor even, it seems, life itself. The Grim Reaper arrives unannounced for nearly all of us. If we knew the time of his appointment, we might think and act differently, but we don’t. God suggests that times of refreshing are, in fact, entirely within your control. It is only a matter of repenting and returning. But, of course, that implies giving up my right to my own agendas. The simplest of requirements usually becomes the biggest of impediments. The truth is that I want my agenda and refreshing time from the author of life. The double whammy is that I can’t have it both ways. Repent and return go hand-in-hand. Both entail denial of self and submission to God.
There are plenty of days when I am seduced into thinking that I can have the universe remodeled to fit me. Those days end with the realization that God designed the way things are and He is not open to my suggestions. When Peter challenged the audience to repent and return, he pointed to the final product of life well-lived. In the end, I want to be in the presence of the Lord. The secret is to keep that end in mind with each step along the road. I am heading somewhere. The direction is up to me. Following the R&R track will take me to rest and safety. No other way will. You can count on that!
