Open Our Hearts

 

… we shall know even as we are known …

—from 1 Corinthians 13:12

Almighty God, to whom all hearts be open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
—Book of Common Prayer 1662 (translation)

What does it mean that to God “all hearts be open?” And, what impact does the reality of this truth have on our daily walk of obedience with our Great King Jesus?

In creating this acknowledgement, the editors of the Book of Common Prayer displayed an understanding that all human beings are known by their Creator. The One who formed each one in the womb of his or her mother most certainly stands in a state of intimate knowledge with regard to each one of His human creatures.

We are made in His image. Thus, we bear the Imago Dei—the Image of God. Therefore, God understands us as no other can or will. We, as His human creatures, stand in a state of being as “Known By God.” We are known by Him. No aspect of our being remains a mystery to Him.

Just as Jesus acknowledged, in Mark 12:28-31, that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, so God knows each of our four human modalities with the surety and thoroughness of His divine knowledge. He knows our emotional being, our spiritual being, our intellectual being, and our physical being. He knows us deeply and thoroughly.

Should this frighten us? By no means. We should draw great comfort from the fact that the very God of the universe knows each of us. “God knows me! He really knows me!” You may speak these words with certainty.

Because God knows each one of us, we can rest in the welcoming arms that He holds open to us. No matter what our circumstances may be at any moment in time, we are not alone. Instead, we are known. We are known by God. And, in that great day when we pass from this life to eternal life in His Presence, we will also know with the same surety.

1 Corinthians 13:12 explains that in that day:

… we shall know even as we are known …

So, when we begin each new day as a follower of God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, be assured that the Holy Spirit, who comes along side us to lead us and guide us through every moment, has an intimate knowledge of who we really are.

Let us put our trust in the reality of this truth and we will come to rest in the fact: “The One who knows us the best, loves us the most!”

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

What's on Our Agenda Today?

 

Come, let us bow down in worship …

—from Psalm 95:6

“So, what’s on your agenda today? What are you up to?”

Has anyone ever confronted you at the beginning of a new day with words like those? It’s quite reasonable for one dear friend to inquire of another what plans he or she has made for the day. Usually, if you’re asked such a question, you have a ready response. Right?

“Today, I’m gonna tackle thus and such.” Or, “I have four phone calls to return and a bunch of reports to review.” Or, “Once the kids are off to school, I’ve got several loads of laundry to do, the house to clean, and a bunch of errands to run. And, if I’m lucky, I’ll get to the gym to try to stay ahead on my weight loss program.”

The Psalmist answered this way in Psalm 95:6-8:

Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert …

Well, I don’t know about you, but I think I have my marching orders for the day:

• Do not harden my heart
  
  
• Seek God’s cleansing for my heart by the power of the Holy Spirit
  
  
• Focus on perfectly loving God through the power of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ
  
  
• Worthily magnify God’s Holy Name
  
  

If I truly set my mind and heart to accomplishing what the Psalmists suggests, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be a busy day—but a most excellent one!

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

A Web of Lies

 

Then you will know the truth …

—from John 8:32

About two-thirds of the way through my 30-year career in the Highly Protected Risk (HPR) property insurance industry, some member insurance companies began to downsize. As a result of one particular force reduction, the company for which I worked ended up with a castoff management-level employee. The individual had no background whatsoever in HPR property insurance. But, as a favor to some highly placed exective in a member company, he was hired to advise on matters relating to employee morale and development. After managing an employee morale campaign that utterly failed to meet it’s objectives, he was tasked to oversee the Human Resources Department. This assignment was utterly ridiculous. This man had no training in Human Resources. Furthermore, he had a mean spirit and no sense of collegiality about him.

As he got to know the various departments in the company, he seemed particularly annoyed with the Loss Prevention Training Department that I managed. In the survey of employee morale, most departments scored 20 out of 100, indicating rather low morale. However, the department that reported to me scored 97 out of 100.

Instead of rewarding my colleagues and me for our cohesive and company-supportive efforts, we became suspects. What could we possibly be doing that would create such a climate of satisfaction. We must be “giving away the store” in order to have fostered such high morale. Why did we stand out in comparison to other departments? Why did we have such a high morale? Why did we seem to have such a positive impact on all those with whom we came into contact?

Once this new department head began to focus his attention on “bringing us down,” we turned our attention to him. On our own time, we carefully and thoroughly researched his background. We interviewed colleagues from his previous employer. One of my co-workers even interviewed his college roommate. Now this may seem unusual to you. But, when someone would go out of his or her way to make himself or herself our enemy, we felt we had a responsibility to “know the enemy.” We did everything we could to learn as much about this individual who had chosen, for no good reason, to make himself our enemy. Notice I stated that he chose to make us his enemy. We did not make him an enemy. He purposefully chose to make himself our enemy.

We also began to pay particular attention to his management style. We observed the way he interacted with those he supervised. We soon realized that, quite subtly, he displayed many of the traits of a sociopath. He had virtually no empathy. He operated with a notable glibness and superficial charm. He was manipulative and conning. He never recognized the rights of others. He had a grandiose sense of self. He was a pathological liar. He lacked remorse, shame, or guilt. He had very shallow emotions. He seemed to have no capacity to love.

By examining this new person quite thoroughly and carefully, we learned some valuable lessons. Please let me share one of them.

When an incompetent individual rises to a management role within an organization, he or she will sometimes intentionally create a climate of chaos. The reason for this climate of chaos: it offers one way of exercising control over people and events.

By keeping the daily flow of information and activities swirling in chaos, the erstwhile manager can let the unpredictability of the work environment consistently move his or her role into the center of the storm. The manager can retain a position at the center of the chaos through procrastination in making decisions, through absence—seldom actually present in his or her office—through a systematic discarding of long term processes and procedures by replacing them with new, less well-defined processes and procedures, and by juggling job responsibilities among team members to keep them unsure of exactly what they are supposed to do; to name just a few of these terrible and destructive techniques.

He or she may also create a climate of distrust, secretiveness, and disdain among team members, and between team members and the next upward level of management, by a creating a web of lies. Even the most simple, factual information is often clouded by a surrounding fabric of lies. This keeps subordinates from clearly understanding what is going on within the work groups and department.

Think of a spider sitting in the center of its web. Upon close examination, you will discover that the elements of the web have a similar, but not precisely identical, geometry. Scientists have discovered that these dissimilar elements of the spider’s web appear to occur through some inner programming within the spider’s brain. Part of the strength of the web comes from these dissimilar, or off-balanced, elements.

In like fashion, the incompetent manager, who rules by creating a chaotic environment, often keeps team members off balance through a web of lies and distortion. In the midst of chaos, the manager begins to breed distrust between team members by telling each team member a slightly different version of the same story. Usually couched as “inside information,” and often told with an insistence that the team member hearing the story vow to remain silent about it, the manager plants specifically unique misinformation in the minds of those he manages. Many times this misinformation will include negative information that one team member has supposedly spoken about another team member.

The incompetent manager will also employ this same technique when dealing with those to whom he or she reports. He or she will convey information to the bosses that includes carefully crafted lies about what his or her team members have said or done. These lies give the bosses an inaccurate and prejudicial view of the individual team members. Because the manager gives these reports in the confidentiality of the meetings with his or her bosses, the team members never have the opportunity to hear about, or correct, the lies the manager has told about them.

By weaving a careful web of lies, the manager creates an ineffective work environment that helps assure that he or she will remain in a position of absolute control. He or she will likely also create scenarios, framed from the lies, that will help shield the manager’s plot from discovery. And, when operations at the workplace begin to fail and customers, or constituents, begin to complain, the lies he or she has told the bosses can often create scapegoats from his or her team members on which to blame the failure.

Over the course of my nearly 62 years in the business world, I have observed very crafty, incompetent managers weave such webs of lies and sustain the lies for significant periods of time. The good news: the truth is always ultimately revealed. Let me say that again. The truth is always ultimately revealed.

The Apostle John reports Jesus’ words in John 8:32:

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Over the passage of time, we observed this new department head radically change the character of his portion of the organization. He systematically moved people out until he had brought in a whole new crew of team members. Some employees transferred to other departments. Others simply left the company entirely. At one point we determined that his incompetent management techniques had cost the company dearly in terms of the intellectual capital represented by lost or unnecessarily transferred employees.

Surely, we thought, once he has all new people he will alter his techniques. But no, he repeated the same evil process with the new batch of employees until most of them had also left the company, as well. In some ways, that department never recovered. Eventually, the extreme property losses brought about by the attack on September 11, 2001, brought the company down. Part of its inability to sustain those losses came about because of the damage to the structure of the company—the rupture of the core—this ineffectual manager had caused over time.

Webs of lies are toxic and destructive. But, the truth always brings freedom. Every web of lies gets wiped away. So, if you labor under a manager who has chosen this way of gaining and keeping absolute control, don’t despair. God has a way of bringing light into every dark corner.

Don’t fall prey to the temptation to weave your own web of lies. Just patiently wait for the truth to rise to the surface. It always does.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

Truth or Lies?

 

“It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.”

—2 John 1:4

I have enjoyed mystery novels for a long, long time. For me, a good mystery novel has a plot that grabs me and holds my attention. Similarly, if a mystery novel can truly engage me, motivate me to think ahead and try to predict the outcome, but then, surprise me with some unique twist in the plot, that’s when a good mystery novel becomes a great mystery novel.

I particularly enjoy mystery novels that challenge me to discover which of the characters represent the “good guys” and which represent the “bad guys.” It’s not always easy to tell, at first.

However, as the plot unfolds and we see the characters in different situations, it sometimes becomes apparent which ones represent good and which ones represent evil. Occasionally, a character that I at first thought was good, turns out to be really bad. When this happens I always feel disappointed. But, I also recognize that the goodness of the good characters becomes heightened by the evil of the evil characters.

I also find it particularly fascinating when the situation in which a character finds himself or herself gives that character a chance to turn from lies and move toward and into a pathway of truth. Sometimes, the character will make that choice. Other times, the character will double-down on the pathway of lies. Each choice offers consequences. On the pathway of truth, the character will find redemption. On the pathway of lies, the character will find damnation.

The statement that the Apostle John writes in his second epistle—that’s the passage at the beginning of this blog post—has always intrigued me. John celebrates that he has found some of the Elder’s children following the truth. I have always wondered what happened to the other children.

You see, if some children walk in the truth, it goes without saying that other children must walk in lies. There’s no middle ground, no shade of gray, no compromize position. Either the children walk in the truth of God’s revelation, in and through His written Word, or they walk in a pattern governed by lies.

I wonder what turned them away from truth. They were children of the same mother. They belonged to the same family. They had the same instruction. They had the same opportunity. They had the same wealth of positive experiences. They had seen where following the truth would lead, yet they chose lies over the truth.

I suspect that, at first, they began to turn from the truth in small ways. A little lie here. Another little lie there. Instead of holding firmly to the truth, they began to cut corners, to compromize, to convince themselves that their own motives held more importance than faithfulness to the truth.

Little by little, small act by small act, they started down the pathway of lies. Soon, the truth was left far behind. The bright, shining glory of the truth became clouded in a mist of lies. Where once the truth shed strong light on their pathway, now the lies they chose blotted out that light. So, they wandered—stumbled really—along a pathway that they could no longer see clearly.

That’s how Satan works, you know. A little nudge here, a poke there, and soon the Evil One has manipulated you to leave the pathway of the truth and turn onto a pathway of lies. The darkness begins to set in and you soon do not even remember what the bright light of the day of truth even looked like.

I grieve for these other children. I long to read an account of how they came to their senses, confessed their sins, repented of their sins, made restitution for their sins, and received the reconciliation with God and man that would fully restore them and set them firmly back on the pathway of truth.

Sadly, John’s letter gives us no such end to the story. We don’t know what happens to the other children. John leaves their fate up to our imagination, at least insofar as this particular letter of his is concerned.

Fortunately in our own lives, we can rest with surety on the fact that God longs to help keep us firmly on the pathway of truth. That’s why God has given every person who truly believes in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the blessed Presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes alongside us to guide us. He lives within our hearts to prompt us to follow the truth. If we will allow Him to do so, He will captivate our minds and make clear, truthful thinking a normality for us.

What about you, dear one? Will you consciously choose to stay on the pathway of truth? As you examine your mind and heart, consider whether your fellow believers might someday ask, “But, what about the others?” Instead, may you be one of whom the Apostle can write, “It gives me great joy to find you walking in the truth.”

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

The Circle of Forgiveness - Part 4: Restoration

 

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

—Psalm 51:10-12

In my three previous blog posts, I laid out a new series of posts using these words:

From time to time on this blog site, I’ve written about Confession, Repentance, Restitution, and Reconciliation. These four individual elements form an interdependent, interlocking, life-sustaining process that some have called “The Circle of Forgiveness.” This process becomes a very important part of the pathway for a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ—that is to say a “Christian” or “Christ’s-one”—to develop into a fully obedient citizen of the Kingdom of God.

At the same time, each of these elements offers its own set of challenges to our normal understanding. While the basis for the fundamental morality of the United States has deep roots into the soil of Judeo-Christian values, time has tended to soften, or distort, some of the concreteness of certain of those values. As a result, people end up with a skewed, or distorted, view of what these values really mean. “Confession” is one such value.

“Restoration” is the final such value. It marks the end of the journey through the “Circle of Forgiveness.” Yet, in a very real sense for most of us, coming to this last value also very likely marks the beginning of another new journey through the Circle. Our sin nature will always bring us to the need for yet another cycle of Confession, Repentance, Restitution, and Restoration. Praise God that—in His mercy and grace through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ—He has made provision for us to continually keep short accounts with Him.

When one party in a relationship sins against another, the Holy Spirit begins a process of conviction. Unless the one who sinned has hardened his or her heart to the point that he or she rejects the urging of the Holy Spirit, that process of conviction will lead the one who sinned to embark on a journey along the Circle of Forgiveness.

The one who has been sinned against plays a key role in the last element of this Circle of Forgiveness—“…forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors…” By cheefully extending forgiveness to the one who has sinned, the harmed party may now lovingly assist the sinner to receive mercy, grace, and love. Once mercy and grace begin to act on the matter, the bond of Christian love will again bloom between the parties.

“If what you describe is so, why do so many in the body of believers remain estranged from each other?”

That’s an excellent question. For each individual situation, the answer comes from conducting a very careful examination to make certain every one of the four steps of the Circle of Forgiveness has been successfully completed. In any situation where you find lingering difficulty, you will find that the estranged parties have missed one of the steps, or not implemented one of them fully.

As I have suggested in several related blog posts over the last fourteen years or so, you can “paint over” the bad spot of sin in a relationship and try to pretend nothing has really happened. However, if the underlying sin does not become exposed and dealt with using the Circle of Forgiveness, that sin stain will always eventually reveal itself to the determent of the relationship.

Let me offer a concrete example:

Due to a bankruptcy on the part of a builder, one adult sibling in a family has an opportunity to purchase a new house at a drastic discount. This is the dream house that the sibling has longed for over many years. However, he does not have the money to purchase the house. He turns to his brother and asks the brother—who is a good deal better off financially— to loan the money in order to purchase the house until the first brother can raise the money to pay back this personal loan between brothers.

The second brother gladly complies with the first brother’s request. However, six months later when the first brother has raised the capital to settle the loan that he obtained from his brother, the second brother suddenly informs the first that he will have to pay interest on the loaned money. In fact, rather than charging a modest interest, the second brother decides to seek more interest than the current market would require, had the first brother been able to borrow the money from a bank or other financial institution.

The first brother, in shock and with a very heavy heart, grudgingly complies. But now, the relationship between brothers has been breached. Yes, the first brother remains grateful for his brother’s help in the matter—for without that help he could never have purchased the house. And, it may seem as if the incident is settled.

However, the truth is, the second brother sinned against the first. He did so by not disclosing the terms of the arrangement that he had in mind at the beginning. He further sinned by charging his brother an exorbitant rate of interest.

For many months, even years, the second brother insists that he did no wrong. He still sees his brother at family social gatherings. He even thinks that all is well between them. But, whenever he drives by his brother’s house, he remembers what he did. On the one hand, he is satisfied with himself that he made out quite well in the matter. Still, deep within his soul, the second brother realizes that he truly did harm his brother in the way he manipulated the situation to his own advantage.

You see, the second brother is being convicted by the Holy Spirit. But, the second brother does not follow the Circle of Forgiveness.

Even though the matter seems settled, every once in a while over the next twenty years, the matter pokes its head above the surface of the normally calm waters of the relationship between the brothers. And, it will continue to fester, just beneath the surface, until the second brother responds to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and employs Confession for his sin against his brother, determines to move on to Repentance for that sin—determining to never commit such a sin again—make Restitution for his sin by repaying the interest that he charged his brother, and finally receives full Restoration.

I urge you, if you have sinned against a brother or sister in Christ, to prayerfully and carefully make your way through the four steps of the Circle of Forgiveness. If you do, God will restore your relationship and restore your joy.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

The Circle of Forgiveness - Part 3: Restitution

 

The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘When a man or woman wrongs another in any way and so is unfaithful to the Lord, that person is guilty and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution for his wrong, add one fifth to it and give it all to the person he has wronged…’”

—Numbers 5:5-7

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

—Luke 19:1-10

In my two previous blog posts, I continued a new series of posts using these words:

From time to time on this blog site, I’ve written about Confession, Repentance, Restitution, and Reconciliation. These four individual elements form an interdependent, interlocking, life-sustaining process that some have called “The Circle of Forgiveness.” This process becomes a very important part of the pathway for a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ—that is to say a “Christian” or “Christ’s-one”—to develop into a fully obedient citizen of the Kingdom of God.

At the same time, each of these elements offers its own set of challenges to our normal understanding. While the basis for the fundamental morality of the United States has deep roots into the soil of Judeo-Christian values, time has tended to soften, or distort, some of the concreteness of certain of those values. As a result, people end up with a skewed, or distorted, view of what these values really mean. “Confession” is one such value.

“Restitution” is another such value. It is also the least talked about, least recognized, and least accepted element in the “Circle of Forgiveness.” While people will often consider the possibility that they may need to employ Confession of their sins, and will even contemplate the idea that they need to turn their backs on theirs sins in Repentance, they simply cannot—or will not—consider the idea that when they have harmed someone they must make it right through Restitution.

“Wait a minute!” you interrupt. “I read the Scripture passages at the beginning of your blog post. The first one comes from the Book of Numbers. It appears to me to be part of the Mosaic Law that God gave to His chosen people, Israel. I’m a ‘New Testament Christian.’ I am not under the Law. I’m under grace. That Old Testament requirement regarding restitution certainly doesn’t apply to me!”

Let me see if I understand your position. Because the Lord Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled the Law in our behalf and paid the penalty for our sins, we no longer need to direct any of our attention to the principles of righteousness that the Law of Moses contains, as carefully described in the Old Testament. Is that what you’re saying? If so, I simply don’t agree with you.

Of course we are under grace and not under the penalty of the Law. But, when the Law gives us conceptual guidance regarding practices that help us perfect the righteousness imputed to us in, by, and through Christ Jesus, we do well to heed what the Law has to say. Such is the case with “Restitution.”

Think carefully about what I am saying. You commit a sin against someone. In so doing you harm that one in some way. Then the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin. In response, you confess your wrongdoing to God and to the one you have harmed. Then, you take the next step and turn your back on that sin, determining to avoid repeating it. The third step in the Circle of Forgiveness requires you to make right the harm you have done. Let me give you an example.

Let’s say that you have taken some action that has deprived someone of his or her employment. You didn’t necessarily intend to inflict harm. Rather, you followed someone else’s lead and took action based on erroneous information that other person gave you. You now understand that the information you acted on was a lie. And, you recognize that you failed in your fiduciary responsibility to more carefully review the information you were given.

You should have insisted to see first-hand proof of what you were being told. Instead of relying on first sources, you took action based on what someone else told you. You did not do the kind of thorough investigation on your own that you should always do. In this failure to be more careful, you sinned. You have confessed your sin and repented of it. Now, to take the next step, you must champion the cause of restoring the one your actions harmed to his or her job. You have participated in damaging that person’s reputation. You must now do everything in your power to repair and restore that reputation. You must strive mightily to do everything you can to right the wrong—to make Restitution for what you have done to cause harm to another person.

Here’s another example.

More than 60 years ago, when I served on the fire department in the southern tier of New York State, one of our fire police officers was also a New York State Conservation Officer. One evening, he told me a story of how he had received a telephone call from one of the professors at a nearby college. The professor was calling to report that the Holy Spirit had convicted him of a sin he had committed and prompted him to confess. The professor explained that he had shot a deer out of season. He was calling the Conservation Officer in order to confess and promise to never do such an illegal act in the future.

As the conversation drew to a close, the Conservation Officer told the professor that he would meet him at the Justice of the Peace’s office in the morning to process the paperwork, so the professor could pay the several hundred dollar fine. Suddenly the professor seemed aghast. It seemed as if the professor thought that Confession was all that he would need to do to clear his conscience. The Conservation Officer told the professor that he still had to make restitution to the State of New York for his crime.

You see Restitution is part of the forgiveness process. If you ignore Restitution, you can’t move on to the final step in the Circle of Forgiveness. Said another way, without following the pathway of Confession, Repentance, and Restitution, you can’t move forward in order to receive Restoration.

I urge you with every ounce of sincerity that I possess: if you desire to respond to the leading of the Holy Spirit with regard to your sins, do not leave out the vital and necessary third step of “Restitution.”

Now, I realize that sometimes you will not be able to provide Restitution. Too much time may have passed. The person you sinned against may have moved away, or even died. You may find that no matter how hard you try to provide Restitution, because other people took action based on what you said or did, the action they took cannot be reversed.

Nevertheless, in every situation, you need to very thoroughly and carefully consider the steps you might be able to take to bring Restitution for the sins you have committed. Where you have harmed someone’s reputation, correct that error. If you have told ten people a lie about someone, you must go back to those ten people and correct the lie. If you failed to follow Matthew 18:15-17 in dealing with how a brother or sister in Christ treated you, you must make every effort to correct that error. In trying to deal with how someone else may have sinned against you, you must absolutely guard against committing a sin against them. Do you understand?

You won’t really have to think all that hard before God will reveal to you exactly what you need to do. After all, God wants you to receive “Restoration.” So, He wants you to complete all the steps along the way around the Circle of Forgiveness—including this vital step of “Restitution.”

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}

 

The Circle of Forgiveness - Part 2: Repentenance

 

When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with tambourines and lutes. As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” Saul was very angry; this refrain galled him. “They have credited David with tens of thousands,” he thought, “but me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?” And from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.

—1 Samuel 18:6-8

In the my last blog post, I introduced a new series of posts using these words:

From time to time on this blog site, I’ve written about Confession, Repentance, Restitution, and Reconciliation. These four individual elements form an interdependent, interlocking, life-sustaining process that some have called “The Circle of Forgiveness.” This process becomes a very important part of the pathway for a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ—that is to say a “Christian” or “Christ’s-one”—to develop into a fully obedient citizen of the Kingdom of God.

At the same time, each of these elements offers its own set of challenges to our normal understanding. While the basis for the fundamental morality of the United States has deep roots into the soil of Judeo-Christian values, time has tended to soften, or distort, some of the concreteness of certain of those values. As a result, people end up with a skewed, or distorted, view of what these values really mean. “Confession” is one such value.

“Repentance” is another such value.

It’s amazing how many times jealousy plants a seed that will grow into a significant sin. In the Scripture passage at the beginning of this blog post, we learn how words of deserved praise can turn the heart of a leader against the one he or she leads. The result of such jealousy is truly tragic.

Today, I want to move on to a discussion of “Repentance.” Repentance means to “turn one’s back on one’s sin.” It’s as simple as that. You just turn and walk away from a sin you’ve confessed.

To flesh this out a bit more, I want to share some wise words I received some years ago in a monthly newsletter from my spiritual mentor, Rev. Dr. David R. Mains, who is now also the person with whom I work. In this communication with his friends and the supporters of his ministry, David wrote: ¹

I have a close friend with whom I’ve made a mutual spiritual journey. We have breakfast together once a month and have been doing so for over ten years. One morning he told me he had been challenged in his church to go for 30 days without saying anything negative about another person. He was tracking his progress by keeping a coin in the side pocket of his jeans. Every time he caught himself saying something negative about someone else, he moved the coin from one side pocket to the other, and then he had to start all over—Day 1, Day 2 … His goal was to make it through 30 consecutive days without having to move the coin.

“How are you doing?” I asked.

“Well it’s been hard,” he responded. “I haven’t made it through a single day yet.”

“Tell you what,” I offered. ”I’ll do it with you. Let’s try to do it for 50 days. That’s seven weeks plus a day. We’ll kind of keep each other accountable.”

Not too smart on my part. Not too smart to think this wouldn’t be tough for me, just like it was for him, and not too smart to say 50 days instead of 30 days. It took me over seven months before I could report to my friend:

“I made it!”

There were many times I wanted so much to say something negative about this person or that one. Even when I drove with my wife, Karen, I wrestled with keeping my big mouth shut when certain names of people came up in conversation—all because I didn’t want to have to start over again after 26 good days, or 39, or 47.

What I discovered (again) is that a good habit can be as hard to break as a bad habit. Here’s something else I discovered. After 50 days of trying, with God’s help, to be circumspect in an area like this, you become very conscious about your words. Everything you say becomes highly sensitized. All in all, though a struggle, my coin-in-the-pocket exercise was a good experience—so good, in fact, that I’ve tried it with other temptations. The problem with most Christians is that when they confess a sin, they don't really mean it—at least, not in doing the hard work of overcoming that sin.

The Bible gives an excellent example of a man who repented from his sins, but didn’t really mean it because his life never changed. If I had been there and heard his confession, my response would have been, “The man was deeply sorry for his actions. He wept loudly in front of everyone.” I would have predicted we’d see a major change in his life. However, King Saul was setting up a pattern of unrepentant remorse. He said the words, but his life didn’t change.

The green-eyed monster of jealousy begins to gnaw in his soul when he hears the crowds singing, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” The refrain galled him, Scripture says, Saul kept a jealous eye on David. (1 Samuel 18:9)

Later, near the Crags of the Wild Goats, while hunting to take David’s life, Saul chooses a cave for a restroom stop and unknown to him, but known to God, it is the very place where his prey is hiding! David refuses the urging of his men to slay the hunter, but as evidence of his restraint, he does cut off a piece of the King’s robe. “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to the Lord’s anointed or lift my hand against him…”

In a little while, after Saul leaves the cave, David calls to the king, tells him what has happened, holds up the sliced material, and Saul, struck with this commendable act calls back, “Is that your voice, David, my son?” He weeps aloud and says, “You are more righteous than I am. You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly… the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me.” (1 Samuel 24:3, 4)

It is here that I would have thought Saul’s confession was one of penitent remorse. I would have been wrong.

The only problem is that Saul doesn’t change his actions! You see, to truly confess to God a wrong should carry with it the assumption that you intend to change your behavior. David again spares Saul’s life when he and Abashai sneak into Saul’s camp. Replay: David shows that he has refrained from killing the king. The king repents aloud. But now David is canny enough to realize he must flee. Saul says the words, but he is not willing to change his actions.

Confession is all about wanting to be forgiven for a wrong that has been done plus the intention not to do it again.

We all need to think more seriously about the prayer of confession. Saul is, unfortunately, a good illustration of so many of us who admit we are doing something wrong—we have a habit of bad-mouthing others, for instance—but we are not all that serious about changing our ways. Sound all too familiar?

I have this great idea for you. Find a coin, any coin (but preferably one you cannot spend). Put it in a pocket and vow that you will work toward a goal of not changing that coin from one pocket to another for 30 (or 50) days. When you fail, start again—Day One. You may discover, as I did, that you are not really sorry (at least sorry enough to change your behavior) about that prevailing sin you find yourself confessing… and confessing… and confessing again.

This great prayer of confession from the Book of Common Prayer incorporates elements I mentioned above. As you are working with repentance in your own life that changes your actions, this may be of help.

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent.

For the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in Your will, and walk in Your ways, to the glory of Your name. Amen.

God desires our obedience. And, He graciously provides ways for us to learn to become obedient. I believe and declare that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to overcome our besetting sins, one sin at a time. We can promptly confess each sin. And then, we can turn away from that sin. In other words, we can activate the second step of the Circle of Forgiveness by employing the “Repentance” of our sin.

 

______________________

1 Mains, Rev. Dr. David R. Mainstay Monthly Newsletter. Wheaton, IL: Mainstay Ministries, 2011. Please note that, in each case, whenever a citation of any Copyrighted material is made within a post on this blog, such a citation is made strictly for Educational Fair Use illustration purposes only. All Rights Reserved by the original Copyright Holder.

 

_{Copyright © 2026 by Dean K. Wilson. All Rights Reserved.}

_{More info at www.DeanKWilson.com}