For March 8, 2020
Although consuming and tantalizing, sin does not fulfill our deep longings like a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ does, and we cannot have any such relationship when we are pursuing a life of sin simultaneously. Faith in God cannot happen without our repentance of sin.
For this to happen, Jesus Christ must be to us 
more than just a celebrated historical figure. He has to become both real and personal to us, as Edward T. Hiscox writes,
We believe the Scriptures teach that repentance and faith are sacred duties and also inseparable graces, wrought in the soul by the regenerating Spirit of God; whereby being deeply convinced of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of the way of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy; at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus as our prophet, priest, and king, and relying on Him alone as the only and all-sufficient Savior.1
The Bible teaches that human life is sustained by blood, which God uses to remediate sin.2 A sinless Jesus Christ shed his blood to pay the price for all of our sins—past, present, and future. Therefore, consciously, deliberately, and reverently, we must acknowledge that our sin offends God and that Christ’s perfect lifestyle and sacrificial death supersedes our best efforts.
In other words, the moment we understand that God loves us and wants to fill our deepest longings through Christ, we repent (or change our minds) about pursuing our former life of sin. In essence, we turn from sin, turn to Christ, and invite him to be our personal lord and savior. Then, God seals us with his Spirit forever.
Now we are free to pursue Christ and his righteousness with every fiber of our being, completely released from sin’s domination. This is because we have received that spiritual transformation promised in Ezekiel 36:25–27 (KJV), where God purifies us from the inside out,
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Through our faith in God through Jesus Christ, God makes us perfect by His wonderful spiritual graces that change our being, position, choices and destiny; forever making us suitable for eternal fellowship with Him in Heaven.
What a Wonderful Savior!