“Be zealous” (Revelation 3:19)  

This devotion is primarily for backsliders. When Christ calls a saint to repent, the saint should do everything in his power, as quickly as possible, to restore his relationship with Christ. Here’s what Christ said to the Church of Laodicea: “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth … As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (Revelation 3:15-19). 

 Do you feel guilty about something? You don’t have to. You can choose to repent. There shouldn’t be anything stopping you from drawing close to Him, unless you love your sin more than Christ. If you hate the sin, repent, and once again you’ll have a “true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:22). 

 Are you not repenting, because you think the lust is too powerful? “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). 

 Are you not repenting, because you don’t want to be a hypocrite, and fall into the same sin again? If you’re not saved, this is a logical assumption. You are caught in the sinner’s endless cycle of “A dog returns to his own vomit," and, "a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22). But if God has regenerated your heart, and given you the Holy Spirit, you may stumble, but you’ll always get back up again (Proverbs 24:16). “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:12-13).