A Time to Repent

Saturday, September 26, two well-known church leaders are calling for a day of prayer and repentance for our nation.

What I found so fascinating is that the day of prayer is set for the Sabbath between the Jewish holy days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a Sabbath celebrated by our Jewish brothers and sisters for decades as Shabbat Shuvah. It actually means "Return." It is a call for believers to return to God. One of the primary scriptures used is Hosea 14 where the people are called to return to the LORD after serving other gods. And the event organizers didn't even realize the significance of the date they'd picked until later!

I'm writing this the Monday before the day of prayer and I'm hoping to spend significant time this entire week in prayer. But yesterday as I was praying for our nation to repent, God convicted me that I need to repent, too. How can I pray for others to turn to God if I myself have sins that I don't want to turn from? So today is a time of repenting and returning for me in preparation for the next work--praying for the return of others.

"This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength..." (Isaiah 30:15).