Amending our lives to agree with the Amen

Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. (Jeremiah 7:3)

Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God; and the Lord will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. (Jeremiah 26:13)

And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. (Mark 16:20)

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

My beloved wife was listening to the Bible this morning. The section that was being read was Mark 16. I've read it many times, but for the first time I noticed that it ended with the word, "Amen."

The word Amen means, "so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled," when it is used at the end of a discourse (teaching).

So, by saying Amen after this verse, the word of God says, "they went forth (so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled), and preached every where (so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled), the Lord working with them (so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled), and confirming the word with signs following (so it is, so be it, may it be fulfilled)."

So it is (past because it's already happened), so be it (present), may it be fulfilled (future). 

The word "Amend," means "to be or make well."

That's a mouth full in itself. But, when I looked up the word Amen in scripture and was working my way down the list of all those verses (there are many. It should tell us something about agreeing with God's word and will.), the app I was using (Bible Gateway) also listed Amend along with Amen. 

When I noticed this, it was as if the Lord whispered, "take notice, pay attention."

Our Engish word Amend literally comes from the word, Amen. 

We Christians like to throw the word repentance around a lot! When asked what repentance means, we tend to answer "to turn away from sin," which is true. However, we are leaving off 1/2 of the equation with that answer.

An alcoholic can turn away (repent) from alcohol and no longer drink, but that repentance doesn't mean he's forgiven by God.

A drug addict can turn away (repent) from drugs and stop using them, but that repentance doesn't make him right with God. 

God's word gives us all a huge clue to the other half. 

When all we do is repent and we do not replace it with God and his ways, we create a vacuum in our lives. That vacuum will be filled with something. And because of our fallen and sinful nature, it's usually not something good.

Our Engish word Amend literally comes from the word, Amen. 

Why did I restate that? 

To amend our lives we do not just make a change. Rather, we are making that change towards God and his ways. We truly are coming into agreement with God on how to live our lives. We are amending our lives to come into agreement with his Amen!

That means we change (past- because it's forgiven when we make the change towards God), and we change (present- because we intend with his help to live in God's ways right now), and we change (future- because we intend with his help to live in God's ways forevermore). 

So we do not simply repent by turning away from sin, but we amend our lives to come into allegiance with him and comply with how his word says we are to live. 

Lord, please help us to amend our lives to be pleasing to you. Help us to repent AND amend our lives to comply with your amen!