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Have you ever felt desperate about your spiritual condition? Has it seemed meaningless to fight for victory over sin – that you have gone so far on the downward path that you can never come back? Have you felt such a loath of your weakness at temptation, that salvation has seemed as something impossible to you?
Disheartened and overwhelmed, have you heard the whispers of the enemy to leave the fight because God will not accept you and your case is hopeless? Have you been with a pained heart, sorrow, and suffering, willing to do anything, and ready to joyfully give up anything, to find relief and to be accepted by God?
God talks to us through our consciences
Then, before the threshold of despair, have you not been supported? Have not words of hope been spoken to you amidst the darkness? Who is he that bothers you? Would he bother you in such a way if there was really no mercy for you anymore? And while Satan is doing all he can to lead us to despair, the Spirit of God is graciously leading us to realize our wretched condition and turn to the only source of help to the sinner. Yes, God’s Spirit is working to reach every one of us. God kindles the flame that will warm us with new courage, new hope, and determination to correct our ways.
So, the grace of God leads us to repentance. When we realize our own miserableness, we are made to turn our steps in the opposite direction. Thus we are brought to step on the straight way, and the first step that we take there is repentance.
Through his Spirit, God is calling man to come to him, and he is trying to reveal to him the only way of finding peace of heart. What wonderful love God manifests to us by giving us his Spirit to turn us from death to life!
True repentance
Lead by repentance, with a heart, yearning towards God, with a strong desire to be freed from the bondage of sin, we turn to God with the prayer of the miter: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13. We lean on his mercy, we ask for forgiveness, and we trust in his promise. Nothing can prevent our decision to forget the past and – if possible – become reconciled to God.
We hope that God will hear our cry and in his love, he will stoop from his holy habitation and lift us up. We are ready to change our way, to correct any evil that we have done to anyone, to pay whatever price that is needed, so that God can forgive our rebellion and let us be there, where the heavenly blessing will rest upon us. This is repentance.
Repentance is not produced by fear of the sure reward of sin. It is not turning away from a path that we desire to walk in, but that we do not dare walk in because of the consequences of doing so. Repentance is leaving a certain path simply because it is not right. It is the decision to do what is right, to be in harmony with the revealed will of God, without looking at the consequences – temporal or eternal.
Many people may consider repentance to be only a change in visible behavior out of fear of the prospect of being punished. But in reality repentance results from a disgust to sin and a true desire to be in harmony with our Lord.
Repentance never allows man to continue to do sin, under any circumstances. It leads man to leave all evil and trust in God for acceptance, because of the merits of “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Confession
One who has truly repented does not hide anything when he makes his confession. The heart is bowed to God. Ho excuses are offered. No one else is blamed. We acknowledge our own wickedness, without considering the transgression of another to be a reason for our individual sins. True confession is specific.
The psalmist made this confession: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned….” And then, as he mentioned his particular sin against Uriah, he said: “… and done this evil in thy sight…” (Psalm 51:4). He did not try to excuse himself because of the common weakness of mankind. This would mean a denial of his guilt.
The same is true with us: if we fail to do this, we cannot receive the answer for which the sin-laden heart longs so much. When the Spirit of God convicts us for our individual sins that separate us from the Father, we would do well to confess them and acknowledge our guilt, without even thinking of blaming others, even if they may be equally guilty.
God will reveal to us our past sins and such that we have forgotten about, for us to confess them and separate from them. He will not show us all our sins at the same time because we would tend to be discouraged at such a sight and we would deem it meaningless to even try. But when we gain victory over one sin, the Spirit of God will show us another, so that we would again desire to correct the evil, and so day by day we will gain victories in his name.
If we see the ugliness of our characters in comparison with the character that God wants to find in us, the contrast between the two would be so wide that we would not have the courage to strive for victory. For this reason, God leads us on, step by step, according to our ability to take it.
Confessing to those whom we have wronged
True repentance does not consist in only acknowledging our sins before God. If we truly repent, we will go to our neighbor, our friend, our father, our mother, our brother, our sister, even to our child, we will confess our wrong to them and asked them to forgive and to help us act the right way in the future.
Many times this act is marred because of a suggested accusation.
How often we say, in an excuse for our wrong-doing: If you had not done that, I would not have done this wrong act. In this way, we are trying to blame someone else. By doing so, we often do more evil than good. True repentance does not mention the mistakes of others but it realizes its own guilt and asks for forgiveness. More than anything else, it mentions the sad feelings and it reestablishes trust.
When we confess to our brother whom we have wronged, we need to be specific in acknowledging our wrong act.
The confession of wrongdoing however is not enough. Repentance always corrects the harm that has been done. If there has been some financial loss, it must be restored. The Scriptural expression “An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” shows the importance of restitution. Only thus we can show the genuineness of our repentance.