Repentance

Read with me in Psalm 51 where David appealed to God’s love and compassion as he petitioned the Lord to forgive him by grace and cleanse him from sin.

In Psalm 51:1(a) we see God’s unfailing love for His servant and His compassion for the helpless, were the basis for David’s appeal for mercy. It is also recognized that David did not deserve forgiveness. God’s forgiveness is by His grace alone.

To repent is a critically-important, but often neglected, requirement of
being restored to right relationship with God and others (Acts 3:19, Luke 5:21). Repentance means turning from sin and selfishness and choosing to surrender your life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

WHAT SCRIPTURE SAYS

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all, by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31).

“…but unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3; *SAME CONDEMNATION FOR ALL).

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

“Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:9-10).

“I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance” (Luke 15:7).

SINFUL NATURE REQUIRES REPENTANCE

We are all born with a sin nature. We are not able to enter into a righteous, acceptable fellowship with God and others until we are born again by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ through His shed blood on the cross. To walk in the righteousness of God, the Bible says our sinful nature with its lusts and affections must be put under subjection. (Romans 6:6, 13:14; Galatians 5:16).

Yielding to our sinful nature and being controlled by our emotions and natural reasoning lead to “works of the flesh” that are physically, emotionally and spiritually destructive. These include outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, carousing, drunkenness, envying, factions, etc. Such works of the flesh result in spiritual death unless we repent (Galatians 5:19-21; James 1:15).

Any attitude or action that is contrary to God’s Word is sin (1 John 5:17; Romans 14:23; James 4:17). There are many sins that seem not to be sin such as reacting incorrectly to our circumstances and relationships, worry, anxiety, fear, suicide (realizing God is the final Judge in these cases), bitterness, resentment, occult practices such as horoscopes, fortune-telling, numerology, astrology, and the like.

The Bible tells us that the “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). God is holy and righteous and can not look upon sin. He sent His son Jesus to redeem us through the blood sacrifice on the cross back to Him.

The Bible tells us that Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3-5). This simply means asking forgiveness, turning your life over to Jesus as Savior and Lord; trusting that through repentance and faith, He will forgive and cleanse you from all sin (Romans 3:23; 10:13; 1 John 1:9; John 1:12).

You will need spiritual nourishment to grow spiritually. It is imperative that you get connected with a church or fellowship of believers where you can grow through the study of God’s Word and prayer.

AS YOU PRAY

Repent of wrong heart attitudes and the sin of lust, pride and the selfish desire to have your own way. Ask God to forgive and cleanse your life that you might live a righteous life through Jesus Christ. As you surrender yourself completely to Jesus, He will empower you by the Holy Spirit to live each day becoming more like HIM.

God works through the events in your life to draw you closer to Jesus to bring about repentance so you might be saved (John 6:44-45; 14:16; Romans 8:28). Begin to thank God for saving your life and setting you free to know Him.

SUGGESTED READING

Read Search For Significance and Search For Freedom by Robert McGee.

Scriptures:

Psalm 51 David’s Psalm – true repentance

Exodus 9:27-35 Sincere repentance

Romans 5:12-19 Sin and death

1 John 3:4 Sin is against God

Matthew 15:18-20 Thoughts and evil words defile

James 4:17 Knowledge and sin

Romans 3:23 All have sinned and fallen short

1 John 1:8, 10 Confessed sin is forgiven