Turnabout 

I was on the phone with my wife once when she was in her hometown. She suddenly says, “I need to let you go, I don’t know where I am.” She had been talking to me and got distracted and made a wrong turn which caused her to then start heading further from her destination. She needed to do a turnabout and get back on course. 

In driving, a turnabout is a maneuver where you turn your car around to face the opposite direction, usually on a narrow road where a U-turn isn’t feasible. It’s also known as a three-point turn. Turnabouts are often used on two-lane roads, when approaching a dead end, or when you need to return to the correct lane. The purpose is to reverse direction.

There’s a word in the Bible that relates to this. That word is repent. Some may see this as a harsh word, though it’s not. This is a word for you to change your direction. If you’re headed to a dead end, understanding that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23 KJV). Then this is a word of grace. This is a word that changes your direction from sin to God.  

Just like my wife when she was driving you can simply make a wrong turn, a wrong decision. It doesn’t have to be a major decision. It can be something so simple. Just as I once was following directions that someone had given me. They told me that when I got to the fork in the road, turn left. I did just that, but unfortunately they had forgotten that there were 2 forks in the road and the first one I should have turned right. This sent me the wrong direction and  consequently 100 miles out of the way. It was just a simple fork in the road. It was just some bad advice on the direction I should be going. 

We can do this spiritually. We can simply veer the opposite way that we should be going. Again it doesn’t have to be a big thing. It can be one simple thing that leads to another bad decision until your way off track. Everyone’s wrong turn can be different. You could be following some bad spiritual advice that isn’t meant to do you harm. It may just be coming from someone who doesn’t know the right direction for you to go. 

What do we do when we realize that we’ve veered off track? Repent. Yes, do a turnabout and head straight back to God. Don’t continue down the wrong road to destruction. No, repent immediately. I once heard a story of a man that was crossing a street. He suddenly stopped and prayed.  He then continued to cross the street. His friend that was walking with him asked, “why did you stop in the middle of the street, you could have been hit?” He replied, “I thought of something that I needed to repent for. I had to repent immediately.” 

Now I’m not telling you to stop in the middle of the road. I am saying have this type of urgency that you stop and repent immediately of any transgressions and get back on thy right path.

Acts 3:19 NHEB “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord,