3 - Repentance and Sanctification

Luke 7:
36. One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to come to his home for lunch and Jesus accepted the invitation. As they sat down to eat,
37. a woman of the streets - a prostitute - heard he was there and brought an exquisite flask filled with expensive perfume.
38. Going in, she knelt behind him at his feet, weeping, with her tears falling down upon his feet; and she wiped them off with her hair and kissed them and poured the perfume on them.
(Living Bible)

This woman of the streets not only knelt behind Jesus and washed His feet with her tears, she also dried them with her hair and kissed them.

Maybe in her past, she had used her hair to entice her clients and her kisses had not been a sign of genuine affection, but just part of her trade.

The book of Proverbs describes her this way:
10. And there a woman met him, with the attire of a harlot, and a crafty heart. . .
13. So she caught him and kissed him; with an impudent face she said to him:. . .
17. "I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. . ."
21. With her enticing speech she caused him to yield, with her flattering lips she seduced him.
22. Immediately he went after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,
23. till an arrow struck his liver. As a bird hastens to the snare, he did not know it would take his life.
(Proverbs 7 Living Bible)

She had probably facilitated many unwise men and their marriages to ruin.
But by humbling herself to pour out the renewed affection of her heart upon the feet of the Lord Jesus, she was giving notice that her natural affections as a woman were now being restored to their right function.

This humility was a sign of repentance and sanctification.
Repentance means that l look at the direction of my life from God's point of view and I decide to turn around and go in God's direction instead of my own.
Sanctification means that I have put God first and that He is now in charge of my life and future.

Prayer:
Father, thank You that I can humble myself before You today.
Thank You for giving me the privilege of repenting of the direction in which I have been going, and now deciding to go in Your direction.
Thank You for the privilege of having You sanctify my life.
Thank You that though I have failed in the past, I can still ask You to be in charge of my future,
in Jesus' name,
Amen.