You can't have one without the other

Nehemiah 1:6-9

 ⁶ listen to my prayer! Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned! ⁷ We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.
⁸ “Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations. ⁹ But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’

As I read these verses I am immediately reminded of two things and one of the two is sometimes forgotten in today’s society. The first is confession. We must confess of our sins. An interesting point here is that Nehemiah is praying for his family that they too have sinned, just like Job did for his family. Perhaps something we should all do as well. The second thing the thing that does get forgotten is repentance. It’s one thing to ask for forgiveness for something and to never have any intention of changing your behavior. I think of a person who uses God’s name in vain and then says “forgive me Lord” and turns right around and does it over and over again. That just does not make sense and makes me think that when they ask for forgiveness they are just asking for permission to take the Lord’s name in vain again and again. You can't have one without the other. To repent is to turn away from and to hate what you just did.  You have to change your mind.  Have you changed your mind about sin? Do you truly repent of your sin?

The cool part is at the end of verse 9 if you confess and repent it does not matter what you have done, how far down the road you have went that Jesus will bring you back and we can all take comfort in that.