August 14 – LD 33, Day 2: The Character Of True Conversion

Luke 1:16-17: "And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

We consider the character of True Conversion today. True Conversion is something radical. It takes place right in the core of our being. It is something that is of the heart. It is a TURNING that is from deep within our soul.

It is not something skin-deep. It does not only say, "I am sorry". And we know, from the tone of those words, when someone is not truly sorry, don't we? Still more, True Conversion is not something that changes and turns around on something only because of the consequences or results that will happen if we don't. For example, medical documentaries may tell us about the harmful results of taking drugs. But true conversion working in us does not only make us stay away from drugs because of that. We do so because our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit.

God reveals in His Word the true and deep nature of True Conversion – He works His work of conversion in our hearts. Besides Luke 1:16-17, in Colossians 3:15, we read: “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, tothe which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”

We are called unto salvation, and called into the body of Christ by a wondrous and radical change, as Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 2:9, that we are “called (out) out of darkness into His marvellous light;” We are graciously given a new, radically different identity in Jesus Christ by this calling: we are "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;”

For Meditation: True conversion, being a work of God, is radical and deep. But it has to take place constantly in us, so that we “more and more” hate and flee from our sins, and turn to God. We need to daily “...work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” Phil 2:12b-13.