The last step in the process off repentance  is the establishment of a new normal. Many people may want to be normal, but have no idea what that looks like. The mistake often made today is thinking characters seen on TV are normal. Normal is not something that is constructed in our minds, but the usual state or condition we find ourselves in. Normal body temperature is 98.6 degrees. Even though body temperature can fluctuate, it is usually 98.6.

Normal for a child of God is a state of dependence on the one who created us. Believers are acting normal when they pray and ask God for help. Our first priority should be to talk to our heavenly father about what is going on in our lives. When we experience tragedy, we feel and usually know with certainty that it is not normal and we should do something to correct our situation. Repentance is not always necessary, but it is a pathway back to God when fellowship has been broken. Lamentations chapter 5 contains a prayer for mercy. It says in verses 1 – 2, “Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach. Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.”

Before God’s people went into exile, he dealt with them on a national level and the king was his counterpart. Once the nation of Judah was destroyed, each person had to account for his own sin and seek forgiveness on an individual basis. Although the book of Lamentations is written as if the nation of Judah still existed, the use of pronouns such as our and us were meant to convey the feelings and desires of the collective individuals that made up the remnant of God’s people rather than the nation that had ceased to exist (Lamentations 5:16).

In the future, God’s kingdom will be restored, but in a different form. As with each individual that has gone through the process of repentance, God’s people will collectively see the return of Christ and the establishment of a new world order. A petition in Lamentations 5:21, “Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned, renew our days as of old” indicated that conversion, and therefore repentance, would be required of all those who would seek a restored relationship with God and entrance into his kingdom.