I want to become someone who truly repents.

After receiving rebuke through the prophet Jehu,

King Jehoshaphat no longer visited Israel but stayed quietly in Jerusalem,

away from the evil King Ahab whom he had once loved and assisted,

but who now hated the God whom Jehoshaphat loved

(2 Chronicles 19:2-4).

As I meditate on these words, I am reminded of King David.

He had committed sin by sleeping with Uriah's wife Bathsheba

when she was pregnant with his child,

and he had tried twice to send Uriah home

to sleep with her to cover up his wrongdoing (2 Samuel 11:4-25).

When this failed, he had Uriah deliberately killed (vv. 6-27).

When God rebuked David through the prophet Nathan, David repented (12:1-13).

Later in his old age, despite having many blankets, he could not get warm.

His servants sought a beautiful virgin throughout the land,

found Abishag the Shunammite, and brought her to him,

but David did not sleep with her (1 Kings 1:1-4).

God called David a "man after my own heart" (Acts 13:22).

As we contemplate these words together, King Jehoshaphat was not a perfect king,

but when he received rebuke through the prophet Jehu, like King David,

he repented and did not commit the same sin "twice."

Thus, it seems that someone after God's own heart truly is one who sincerely repents.

However, I am troubled because despite knowing

I should not commit the same sin "again,

like a dog that returns to its vomit,"

I continue to act in this foolish manner (Proverbs 26:11).

"Oh, how wretched I am!

Who will deliver me from this body subject to death?

Thank God!  He will deliver me through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So then, with my mind I serve the law of God,

but with my flesh, the law of sin"

(Romans 7:24-25).