Amend Your Ways

Jeremiah 7:5-7 (ESV)

5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

There is no call here for repentance, only for a change in behavior. The inability of man to change his ways according to the Law which teaches us right from wrong is the weakness of the Law for the salvation of man. The rain from heaven can fall on us, but it stays on the outside of man and he dries quickly. It doesn’t penetrate the flesh of man. 

It is not until the word of God enters the flesh of man and takes root within a man that true change becomes possible. Repentance prepares the way for us to begin in the way of the Lord, which is walking with Him. We can only walk with Him when we have His Holy Spirit and follow His lead. 

It is then we can drink the living waters of life and enter the kingdom of heaven. We can change and be like Him.