DEEP - Week 2
Day 5
“Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that he may forgive us for having such a thought in our heart. For I see that we are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” - Acts 8:22–23
Sometimes the problem we want God to fix around us is actually something God wants to confront within us. Simon wanted power in his hands, but Peter pointed to something much deeper: his thoughts, his heart, his bitterness, and his captivity.
Peter does not soften what is happening.
He tells Simon to repent.
Simon’s problem was deeper than one bad decision.
Peter says his heart was not right before God.
Then he says Simon was full of bitterness and captive to sin.
Something internal needed to change.
That is where going deep eventually takes us.
God’s Word does not only deal with our outward actions.
It gets into our thinking.
It gets into our hearts.
It confronts desires that still belong to our old lives.
Simon had once been somebody important.
People followed him.
People admired him.
People gave him attention.
People even called him “the Great Power of God.”
Then Simon became a follower.
Suddenly, he was not the center anymore.
He was not used to being on the sidelines.
And when he saw something powerful happening through Peter and John, that old desire began surfacing.
He missed the attention.
The old habits began creeping back.
That is what makes Simon’s story so important for us.
Sometimes the thing that threatens our spiritual growth is not obvious on the outside.
It is internal.
Bitterness.
Ego.
Old thinking.
Old desires.
A heart that is slowly drifting.
We can be saved.
We can be baptized.
We can follow.
And still have areas where God needs to do deeper work.
That is why Peter tells Simon to repent.
Repentance means Simon cannot simply blame his past.
He cannot blame the culture of Samaria.
He cannot blame the years he spent practicing sorcery.
He cannot blame Peter and John.
He has to deal with what is happening in his own heart.
And so do we.
There is work only we can do.
Other people can help us.
Other people can pray.
Other people can point things out.
But there are places where we have to allow God’s Word to confront us personally.
We have to get serious about our thoughts.
We have to recognize where bitterness has been allowed to stay.
We have to recognize where old desires still have influence.
We have to recognize where we have been captive to something that Jesus is calling us to leave behind.
And we have to repent.
This is the deep work.
It is not simply looking spiritual.
It is not simply being around spiritual things.
Simon had been around an incredible move of God.
He saw people saved.
He saw people healed.
He saw miracles.
He followed Philip.
He saw the Holy Spirit moving.
But being around the power of God was not a substitute for allowing God to change Simon internally.
We cannot substitute being around God’s work for allowing God to work in us.
So today, we let God go deeper.
We ask where the old life is still showing up in our thoughts, our hearts, and our desires.
Then we stop protecting it.
We stop making excuses.
We repent.
We get into the Word.
We let God clear out the stuff and fill us with more of Him.
We surrender.
We become hungry to go deeper.
Because the goal is not simply for our lives to look different.
We want God to change something inside us.
WATCH THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE HERE: https://youtu.be/o2mLEz0ZpTo?si=dT6ZvLDylPv9Z7Sg
