Repent To Him
O My servants, who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of God. Indeed God will forgive all sins. Indeed, He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful. (Qur’an, 39:53).
Most of the time you believe that Almighty God loves you as long as you make good decisions, resisting temptation, treating people right. You know that God loves you. You know he is on your side. However, the problem with this kind of reasoning is we all make mistakes.
Indeed human is most unfair and senseless. (Qur’an, 33:72).
No matter how good of a person you are, there will be times that you do not perform perfectly, times that you have doubts, times that you fail. You know you should bite your tongue but you told them off anyway. You said it would be the last time but you gave into compromise once again.
When you do not perform perfectly it is easy to think that God is far from you; that God would never have anything to do with you. However, the truth is when you fall; God does not turn away from you. He comes running toward you. When you blew it, God does not say, too bad. You had your chance. He comes after you with passion.
Maybe you can say that when you make a mistake God does not love the same but He may love you a little more! He will turns up the intensity. He will send people across your path to encourage you, to help reignite your faith. Maybe you are walking through the neighborhood, you hear the azan from mosque and you feel a warm-ness on the inside.
That is the mercy of God coming after you, saying:
“O My servants who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of God. Indeed God will forgive all sins. Indeed, He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful. (Qur’an, 39:53).
You may have blown it but you are still My servant. You may have let Me down but I am not going to let you down. You may have lost faith in Me but I have not lost faith in you.”
You have to have a perfect performance. You should never have a doubt; you should never make a mistake. Certainly, you should try your best each day to honor God. You should:
Revere God as He deserves to be revered, and do not die except as ones who have surrendered. (Qur’an, 3:102).
However, what I am saying is, do not beat yourself up if you do not perform perfectly all the time. God loves imperfect people. God knows that every mistake that you will ever make. All of your days have been written in his book from the beginning to the end. He says,
“It is indeed Us who resurrect the dead, and We record what they have done and left behind. And everything We have counted in a clear ledger.” (Qur’an, 36:12).
God knows every time you take the easy way out, Every time you will lose your temper. The good news is God still chose you. He still says, “You are my servant, and I will still help you fulfill your destiny.” Why? Because God’s love is not based on your performance, it is based on your relationship. You are his servants and His family. As the Prophet (peace be upon him and his pure progeny) said, “People are God’s family.”1
You may made mistake; you may have failed, but none of you have failed as big as Hurr2. None of you fought with the Imam. You would think that Hurr would have missed his destiny. Sourly God would not have anything to do with him. No, when you make a mistake God does not turn away from you. He turns to you. He tries to help you. He does not love you less. He comes after you.
They started the battle on the day of Ashura. Hurr changed his way and Imam and of course Almighty God, accepted the repentance from Hor. indeed
He is the One who accepts the repentance from His servants, and He forgives the sins. He is fully aware of what you do. (Qur’an, 42:25).
God says, “I am the God of another chance. When you fall, I come running toward you.” God does not cancel your destiny because you have a few detours. Some of you today are kind of down on yourself because you are not where you thought you would be in life. You have made some poor choices. You are letting the guilt weigh you down. That heaviness is keeping you from God’s best.
God Almighty calls you and says, “I have forgiven you. I am not disappointed in you. I am not withholding my blessing. I still have an amazing future in front of you.” God is calling your name today. He is running toward you.
Indeed your Lord is expansive in His forgiveness. He knows you best since the time He produced you from the earth. (Qur’an, 53:32).
God is saying, “I am not just the God of perfect people. I am not just the God of people that never make a mistake. I am the God of people that have failed. I am the God of the people that have blown it.
My mercy encompasses all things.” (Qur’an, 7:156).
The first person that Jesus (peace be upon him) revealed himself to, as the messiah was not the religious leaders. It was not a priest. It was a woman; a woman who had made mistakes, a woman who was beaten down by life – an imperfect person. He said, “I must go through Samaria. There is a woman there that feels condemned. She is about to give up on life. I must go express my love. I have got to encourage her, get her back on the right course.”
Too many people like her, are sitting on the sidelines of life. They feel like they have blown it too many times. They have failed and they have not measured up. Now they are letting the accusing voices convince them that they are all washed up. God is disappointed in them.
They think they cannot expect God’s favor. No, you may have made mistakes but God is not running from you. He is running to you. He is expressing his love to you. You are not supposed to sit on the sidelines. God’s mercy is bigger than any mistakes that you have made.
God declares, “O My servants who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of God. Indeed God will forgive all sins. Indeed He is the All-forgiving, the All-merciful.” (Qur’an, 39:53).
God looks for people that have a heart that is turned perfect toward him. That means if you get up each day with a desire to please God, if down deep you really want to honor him, then you will have times that you fail, the good news is that does not cancel your destiny. Your performance may not be perfect but because your heart is perfect toward God, he still has something amazing in your future.
No matter what you have done, do not go around beating yourself up. You cannot change the past. Learn from your mistakes but do not get stuck there. Keep moving forward. Receive God’s mercy. Be bold enough to say, “God, I blew it. I know I was wrong. I should have done better, but God, I know you are not holding it against me. I know you are not just the God of perfect people.” Just
plead with your Lord for forgiveness, and then turn to Him penitently. He will send copious rains for you from the sky, and add power to your present power. So do not turn your backs on Him as guilty ones. (Qur’an, 11:52).
God Almighty is not far away from you. He came to the people who have doubt before He came to the people that had faith. You may try to put God in a box and tell God who to save, who to bless, who to forgive, and who to heal.
Sometimes God will bypass the people with faith to go to the one person that has doubt. It is because God never writes you off. God does not judge you the way people judge. God understands when you make a mistake.
He understands when you have doubt. God is not judging you by that one setback. Get rid of that negative label. Do not let that mistake becomes your identity. Stop seeing yourself as doubting, addicted, and undisciplined; No, you have to turn it around. Start seeing yourself as blessed, free, redeemed, and successful.
Too often, you get your performance mixed up with your identity. In other words, you may have failed but you are not failure. That is what you did that is not who you are. You are the servant of God. You have been hand-picked by the creator of the universe so He asked angels to prostrate before human. Almighty God says,
“So when I have proportioned him and breathed into him of My spirit, then fall down in prostration before him.” (Qur’an, 15:29).
You may struggle with an addiction but you are not an addict. That is what you did. That is not who you are. You are clean. You are pure. You are free and you are restored. Now do not go around dwelling on your past mistakes.
Quit replaying all the times, you have failed; the time, you were in the temptation; the time, you blew the relationship; the time, it did not work out. Just as you have a remote control to change the channel on the television, you have to change the channel in your mind.
You will not be free from guilt; you will not enjoy your life, if you are constantly replaying the negative memories of your past. If you want to replay anything, replay your victories. Replay the time that you honored God. Replay the times that you helped someone else in need. That will change your perspective. Some day you would go to new level if you get good at changing the channel in your mind.
The real question is will you receive Gods mercy? Just turn to your lord and be sure He will accept you.
Plead with your Lord for forgiveness then turn to Him penitently. My Lord is indeed all-merciful, all-affectionate. (Qur’an, 11:90).
If you turn to Almighty God, He will bless you. So,
Plead with your Lord for forgiveness and then turn to Him penitently. He will provide you with a good provision for a specified term and grant His grace to every meritorious person. (Qur’an, 11:3).
Be sure that Almighty God loves you.
Indeed God is most kind and merciful to mankind. (Qur’an, 22:65).
He is waiting for you.
So plead with Him for forgiveness then turn to Him penitently. My Lord is indeed rearmost and responsive. (Qur’an, 11:61).
