"Three R’s:” God’s Rx for Heart Health

The recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton deeply saddened me and stirred my sympathy for all who were affected.  Admittedly, this news also made me angry at the shooters.  Then, I began to reflect on the depravity that exists in my own heart.  Times of tragedy serve to remind us all of our need for repentance and forgiveness.  But sadly, our necessary reflection on universal human depravity is quickly interrupted by personal distractions and the noisy clamor and rancor of our culture in response to yet another tragedy.

On a social and political level, some argue that hate speech and racism incite mass shooters to act.  Others point to guns as the responsible tools that should be banned.  Still others point out that guns only fire when angry persons pull the trigger.  And anger arises from personal turmoil from within the hearts of shooters, often promoted by mental illness and/or drug addiction.  Violent tendencies are particularly common among young men who grow up without fathers and without supportive networks provided by good schools, churches, and community organizations.

Reasons for horrific tragedies are complex and multifaceted, so I don’t mean to oversimplify.  However, it should be obvious that finger-pointing and hateful rhetoric will not solve the deeper problems.  Nor will it be easy to “Red Flag” potential threats without an understanding of the origin and growth of anger, hate, and murder.  Therefore, I must begin by addressing the potential for hate and hateful responses within my own heart. 

From God’s Word, I am learning that the only difference between horrific atrocities and the “hidden sins” of hate and pride in my heart is a matter of scale.  Jesus alludes to this in His teaching as recorded in Matthew 5: 22 (emphasis mine):  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.  Notice that Jesus takes the sixth commandment, “Thou shall not murder,” and goes to the source within the human heart where the underlying sins of pride, hate, and envy are rooted.  Sin within the heart triggers the sins of the tongue such as hateful name-calling.  And one who speaks hatefully is capable of murder.  Christ takes very seriously this outward progression from the sinful heart to hateful words to murder.  So seriously that He considers sins of the heart as equivalent to murder.

Thankfully, when our souls become frustrated and fearful, God stands ready with a three-part prescription from His Word.   I am now considering them as my basic “three R’s”—not “Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and ‘Rithmetic;” but instead, REPENT, REJOICE, and RECONCILE.

REPENT
When I am becoming frustrated, fearful or angry toward others or in response to the daily news, I must look within my own heart, the seat of my personality.  There, I will find the cause of my unkind words and actions.  And there I should stop and repent. 

According to Charles Spurgeon,
“Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin,
a mourning that we have committed it,
and a resolution to forsake it.
It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.”

Notice the emphasis on permanence in Spurgeon’s definition:  “resolution to forsake...change of mind…very deep and practical….”  Along the same lines, my former pastor, Dan Wingate calls us to adopt a “lifestyle of repentance.”  Such a humble, daily disposition helps us to recognize our own depravity and our tendency to wander like sheep away from God our Shepherd (Isaiah 53: 6).  Until we as individuals and as a society realize that sin is ultimately a rebellion against God who created us and therefore, owns us, we will not realize the seriousness of sin as the primary cause of our problems—individually and institutionally.  We will go on hating others instead of hating our own sin.

Don’t Substitute “Religion” for Repentance
Instead of recognizing that we are prideful rebels, we tend to focus on external problems that are not the primary cause of our broken world.  For example, the religious leaders of Jesus’s day criticized Jesus an

d His followers for not ceremonially washing their hands before they ate.  But Jesus said the primary problem is not what we do with our hands or even our tongues—but out of our heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.  But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone (Matthew 15: 18-20).

Emphasis on the externals leads to a religion of ceremony and legalism.  Rather than cultivating a love relationship with God, we rely on check-lists of our good deeds.  Both Christian and non-Christian alike can fall into this error.  Going to church, tithing, and abstaining from alcohol or meat, or rejecting plastic straws and gas-guzzling cars—none of these can make one person any more righteous in God’s eyes than another. The Apostle Paul condemned external comparisons as selfish and prideful when he wrote: When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise (2 Corinthians 10: 12). 

Our Strongholds to Resist Repentance

The alternative to a repentant heart is a heart that becomes increasingly calloused with thick walls reinforced by pride and self-righteousness.  Calloused hearts become insensitive, cold, and hateful toward others.  When we watch the news, I see anxious and fearful people and hear angry words.  Unrepentant, prideful people make arrogant and woeful predictions that the sky is falling and despise anyone who disagrees with their philosophy of government, ethnic relations, economics, and energy usage.  Of course, we should exercise morality and good stewardship in all of these areas.  But our pursuit of happiness is a fruitless effort unless we submit to God’s plan and purpose through repentance.  Repentance frees us from the wages of sin and moves our focus from a life of pride, comparison, envy, and fear to a focus on God who alone is perfect and judges rightly.  When the eyes of repentant souls are focused on God, He brings rest to their souls.

Repentance must be my “first stop” before I can experience the other two R’s, rejoicing and reconciliation.  Yet it is hard for me to read the Gospel accounts and imagine the ugly spectacle of the bleeding, sinless Jesus Christ I helped to nail to a Roman cross.  It was my sin that did this to Jesus!   Yet my pride—our pride as humans can cause us to turn away.  We avoid godly counsel, church, and God’s Word when we know they can help us.  The prophet Isaiah, over 500 years before Christ, prophesied how we would “despise and reject” the Suffering Servant whose sacrifice in our place would cast a spotlight on our sin and depravity.

So, I have a choice, and you have as well.  Either we focus on justifying ourselves before God and others by the good works we do, or we focus on what Christ did for us, dying in our place so we can claim His righteousness (right standing before God).  If we individually choose to reject God’s “love gift” of salvation through repentance, then God can offer neither of the other two R’s-- rejoicing and reconciliation.  Jesus warned: Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (be separated from God for eternity) (Luke 13: 3).  In 2 Corinthians 7: 10, Paul describes repentance that leads to salvation.  The Apostle Peter summarized the Gospel when he wrote, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…  And, again Paul wrote that he was not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile (Romans 1: 16).  That is “Good News” indeed; enough to bring rejoicing!

REJOICE

To rejoice is to express joy and delight.   True joy comes from within our hearts.  Joy is one facet of the fruit of the Holy Spirit who comes to abide in the repentant sinner.  The Apostle Paul wrote, Now He who prepared us for this very purpose [to live for eternity in resurrection bodies] is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge (2 Corinthians 5: 5).  Salvation from sin (John 3: 16), freedom from the condemnation of sin (Romans 8: 1), and the gift of God’s Spirit to abide within us (Ezekiel 36: 27) is reason for rejoicing.  The psalmist wrote, The LORD has done great things for us; we are filled with joy (Psalm 126: 3).  The Spirit-filled, Christ-follower cannot help but rejoice!  What’s more, according to the prophet Zephaniah, God our Creator and Savior rejoices over us as His redeemed children!  Imagine that!  The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.

As a sinner saved by God’s grace, I experience joy and consolation when I reflect on God’s presence within me though His Holy Spirit.  The contrast of what I was before I came into a personal relationship with God through repentance and faith in Christ’s substitutionary death and who I am afterwards is described accurately by the Apostle Paul.   In Galatians 5: 16-18, we learn how our sinful nature (“the flesh”) sets itself against the work of the Holy Spirit in us.  After these words, Paul describes our lives “before” (5: 19-21) and “after” we submit to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives (vv. 22-23).

Repentant Hearts Exude Joy in a Troubled World
Repentance prepares us to humbly invite God’s Holy Spirit to enter our lives.  The Spirit’s presence enables us to bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.   But you may ask, how can I be joyful when so many bad things happen?  Answer— we must remember that Joy and its expression of rejoicing springs from within and is independent of things that happen to us.  Bad happenings in our culture of hate and violence will not overcome the Christ-follower who relies on God’s Spirit and His Word.

After Jesus instructed His disciples about things that would happen in the future, He said, These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).  Jesus promised not only joy in the midst of a troubled world, but also that He would empower His followers to be ambassadors of reconciliation.

RECONCILE
By now, the importance the sequence of the three R’s, REPENT, REJOICE, RECONCILE, should be evident.  Repentance is the gateway to salvation and Eternal Life.  Where sin had once reigned within our unrepentant hearts, now God’s Spirit enables us to overcome sin and have victory.  Anger, hate, fear, envy, and lust are replaced by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control.

We Are Reconciled… to Be Reconcilers 
The Apostle Paul wrote (emphasis mine), Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5: 17-20).

This Scripture makes it clear that reconciliation between the sinner and God through faith in Christ gives birth to a new creation that in turn can become a force for reconciliation among the hurting and rejected of this world.  But you might say, how does the Bible address my friend or family member who is trapped in addiction or mental illness as a result of emotional and physiological problems.  Please realize that there is no human condition that cannot be helped by the care of loving friends and family combined with professional counseling and medical care.  Counseling and medications alone are weak and ineffective.  However, biblical witness and counseling by loving family, friends, and professionals are necessary to give purpose and desire within the hurting person, helping them to want to change. 

In conclusion, if you have chosen the path marked with the signs of REPENT, REJOICE, and RECONCILE, you know from experience how this sequence brings joy and reconciliation with God and other people.  You know from experience what it means to have victory over the sins of anger, hate, fear, and envy that once infected your heart and soul.  You may also be serving as an ambassador of reconciliation to hurting people around you as you humbly remember your struggles without Christ. 

Reconciliation Involves Both Spiritual with Mental Health
On the other hand, if you are hurting and in despair, feeling trapped in addiction and emotional turmoil, you can find help and hope.  For example, you may be familiar with the “Twelve-Step Program” of Alcoholics Anonymous.  This program is consistent with biblical teaching and the “three R’s” beginning with REPENT. 

Please check out the link to the “Twelve-Step Program” and notice how the first seven steps can provide instruction on how to acknowledge God and come to Him in a spirit of repentance.  This program is very effective when used in the presence of loving family and friends.   If you are hurting emotionally or struggling with addiction, I hope you will seek help from trusted individuals or organizations that can point you onto the path to recovery through the “three R.’s.”  If you wish to contact me with questions, I would be glad to assist you:  silviusj@gmail.com