Inspire Others. Repent!

While Ezra was praying and confessing, weeping and throwing himself down before the house of God, a large crowd of Israelites—men, women and children—gathered around him. They too wept bitterly.

Ezra 10:1

Ezra was innocent before God, but his people were not. As the one who was to teach them the law and help them return to living in accordance with God's Word after their 70 year exile in Babylon, Ezra felt the weight of their sin on his own shoulders. And so he began to repent of and mourn over the people's sin publicly before God. His heartfelt and sincere repentance quickly had an effect on the others and they began to repent in earnest too. 

The point? Your sincere repentance over sin can lead others to repentance too. In fact, setting the example out front of those you lead will very often yield better results than driving them from behind with a whip. So too exemplifying true repentance before others is often a quicker road to bring them to repentance than confronting them with their sin would be. 

I have seen this over and over again in worship services. I've sat in countless services where no one came forward after the sermon to repent or pray, and I have sat in quite a few services in which two or more came forward. But, I would estimate that there have been fewer services in which only a single person came forward. Why is that? Because the brave vulnerability of the one often inspires others to follow suit. If a single person comes forward to repent, the likelihood of others coming increases greatly. 

So, put this into practice in your own life. In a world that makes light of sin, make much of yours instead. If you know someone who needs to repent, don't accuse and attack them. Try genuinely repenting of your sin in front of them instead and see if they won't follow suit.