What Happens When God Answers by Evelyn Christenson

Chapter 7:  When God Answers…Be Reconciled to Me

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When we pray, “I have sinned,” God not only answers, “Repent,” but He also includes in His answer, “Be reconciled to Me.”

Reconciliation is necessary only because a relationship has been broken.  And all human sin breaks the relationship between God and the one who has sinned.

While this reconciliation to God actually comes simultaneously with true repentance and forgiveness, there are two sides to the transaction. So this is why God’s forgiveness as we repent must include our reconciliation to Him.

OK, I know what reconciliation means, but I want to have a dictionary definition to make this clear to me. 

RECONCILE MEANS RESTORE FRIENDSHIP

So when I sin, I need to repent and be restored to God. 

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Why does God insist on reconciliation?  Because He, too, is angry at our sinning.

God does get mad when I sin?  I try to ask God’s forgiveness when I sin, but do I really think about him being mad at my sin.  What does he think about those same sins that I do over and over?  The Bible says that God forgives my sins, but how must he feel when I keep doing the same silly sins over and over again?   I should remember that God can help me with those sins that I keep doing over and over.  I just need to ask him, repent and then be reconciled to Him.

I THINK THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT I NEED TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT MY SINS.  I can live my life thinking of God as a loving God and that he always forgives my sins, which he does, but it is easy to forget how much he hates my sins. 

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God loved us enough to send the means of reconciliation—His own son Jesus.

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The only reason God convicts us of sin and demands repentance is so that we can be reconciled to Him.  It is so that we can step into that room marked His Holy presence. 

“Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?  And who may stand in His holy place.  He who has clean hands and a pure heart.”  (Psalm 24:3-4a

Closing Prayer

Oh, God, I confess that I have violated Your holiness and, thus, our relationship is broken.  Please, God, cleanse me from all known and unknown sin.  And thank You, Father, for being holy enough to be angry at my sin—but loving enough to forgive me and to reconcile me to yourself.  In Jesus’ Name Amen.