Faith and hope are the gifts from God. Repentance is our response to that gift. When we repent, we reform our souls. This daily devotional reviews what repentance is and isn’t and why we need to repent and keep repenting.
Devotions in the Self-Discipline Review series
All year, we’ve been looking at self-discipline. We looked at self-discipline as the operational plan for self-control because it talked about improvement.
We are reviewing everything and hopefully putting all of the building blocks together. What I am doing is going through all of the devotions for the year and pulling out the nuggets.
I am formatting this as a glossary page. If I already have one, I will combine them later.
God wants us to repent. God wants our relationships with Him to be restored. In order to restore our relationship, we have to obey Him (What Happens When We Repent?).
We have to follow God’s laws. Strictly follow God’s laws. To the letter. All the time. If we don’t, we have to repent (How Did Moses Say Goodbye?).
What Is Repent?
Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God, expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
How do we restore our relationship with God? We repent (How We Lost Our First Love?).
When we have sinned, we need to confess our sins and repent (How Do We Benefit from Being God’s People?).
We accept the gift of salvation by submitting to Him. We repent of our sins and obey His laws and commandments (How the Righteousness of God Filters to Us).
All we have to do is ABCD. We have to repent of our sins (Peace Starts with Getting Right with God).
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Only God can remove our sins — when we ask and repent of our sins. If we don’t have the pure heart — or at least are not working toward it — we don’t see God (The Nominal Disciple).
God doesn’t force salvation on us. We have to repent (Can God See Us If We Are Sinners).
In order to receive the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood, we need to repent (Completion from the Cross).
Salvation does not come without repentance. Repentance means changing our character and actions so that we no longer live a sinful lifestyle (A Sincere Acceptance of Salvation).
We are only reborn through God’s grace. But we are only reborn when we approach Him in belief and repentance. Everything after that in our conversion experience is God performing the tasks. Our job is to believe and ask (Born for the Kingdom).
John taught repentance. He taught that baptism showed that repentance and submission to God (What Is Baptism?).
Sinners need to repent and accept God’s gift of salvation. Acceptance of salvation means we must strive to make our character more like God’s. We need to watch for Jesus’ return (Witnessing as God Calls).
We have to turn from Satan and turn to God. That is what repentance is (Rewards for Focusing on God).
Uniting with God is the turn we are supposed to take when we repent (What Is Peace?).
But we have to turn. We have to repent and give up our love of sin – even our pet sin. We have to obey God’s laws and commandments (Comprehending Christ’s Love).
When we repent, we exhibit the faith that God can save us (What Was Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).
We can’t think that we can get by if we just repent of some things. We have to repent of all sins (Sometimes, War Is Judgment).
Man sinned. But God tells us to repent and be saved (Comprehending Christ’s Love).
When we repent, God will forgive us. Why? Because Jesus was the substitute for our sin (God’s Law Creates Peace).
This is the repentance effect. We not only say we are sorry, please forgive us, but we also change ourselves to reflect His character. The bottom line is we are wrong (sinful) and need to get right with God (What Is Chastity to a Disciple of Christ?).
Repentance isn’t just about saying, “We’re sorry. Forgive us.” It is about saying, “I am giving up my sinful ways. I am going to follow Your laws and commandments” (Isaiah’s Message about the Baby).
The purpose of repentance is restoration (What Happens When We Repent?).
God can ask us to repent. It is reasonable for God to demand we not only be contrite for sinning, but that we also cease and desist (What Happens When We Repent?).
God is a God of love. He accepted the Israelites back — then told them to clean up their act. Bottom line — if they repented — He would restore them (What Happens When We Repent?).
We are called to be reformed sinners — reformed liars, reformed thieves, reformed lesbians, etc. That is what repentance is about (Does God Really Call Us to Give Up Everything?).
God is wanting us to completely follow His laws and commandments. No, we won’t be perfect in this human form. When we aren’t, we ask forgiveness and repent (How Do We Worship God in Our Souls?).
See Also
What Is Repentance Not?
Denying that we sin is not repentance. Asking God for salvation without changing our character and lifestyle is not repentance. Picking and choosing which of God’s laws and commandments we are going to obey — and which we are going to continue to break — is not repentance (A Sincere Acceptance of Salvation).
Why Do We Have to Repent?
- God is not going to condone sin. He is not going to comfort us when the situation is a result of our sins. We need to repent of that sin (How Can We Find Comfort in Troubling Times).
- We sometimes put off repentance to the last minute. We forget that, if the decision gets made for us, it will be non-repentance (Salvation from the Cross).
God will continue to accept our genuine plea for redemption until the very end. He does not want one person who will ultimately repent miss the boat and spend eternity in hell (How Will the Tribulation Begin?).
The Plan of Salvation cannot be accessed if we don’t repent (Why Is Repentance Important?).
Repentance is a change of heart. We have to get it to the heart level so that we become obedient to God (Why Is Repentance Important?).
It is important that we repent — that we truly turn away from sin and turn to God. One day, judgment day will be upon us (Why Is Repentance Important?).
There is only one sin that God won’t forgive. We can be murderers, thieves, or liars — and God will forgive us when we repent. The only sin she can’t and won’t forgive is unbelief (Why Is Repentance Important?).
God will forgive all sins — even unbelief — if we genuinely repent (Why Is Repentance Important?).
Jesus was, is, and will always be the only Savior to save us from that sin. Before the creation of the universe, Jesus was tapped to be our Savior. He became our Savior when He accomplished the Plan of Salvation. He is still in the business of calling the spiritually dead to repentance (What Is Truth?).
We are separated from God when we are born. It was nothing we ourselves did. But we ourselves have to rectify that condition. We have to repent and be saved (Discerning the Voice of God between the Law and the Gospel).
Do We Have to Keep Repenting?
Oh, yeah. We’re going to have a lot of repenting to do after the initial ABC. The D part is going to have a lot of times when we don’t do what God wants. So, we will have to repent again (How We Lost Our First Love?).
God will give us second chances if we genuinely repent (What Is Missions?).
But it seems that we can’t get over the do’s and the don’ts. We have to create a list of all the offenses we done that go against God’s laws and commandments. God doesn’t do that. Oh, yes. He wants us to confess and repent of our sins – and will judge us for any unconfessed sin (But the Man after God’s Own Heart Was a Warrior).
How Do We Grow through Repentance?
Does our relationship with God have its ups and downs — because of us? Yes. That doesn’t mean we have lost our saltiness. We repent, grow, and mend our relationships, and things are fine (How We Lost Our First Love?).
The thing we have to pay particular attention to is that this repentance brings regeneration (Completion from the Cross).
Just saying we repent of our sins isn’t all we need to do. We need to be obedient and show the world we have made a profession of faith (What Is Baptism?).
Belief, repentance, and obedience to the gospel cannot be separated (What Is Baptism?).
To be a true disciple, pity and love must follow repentance (What Is Expected of Disciples?).
Maybe they think that they will always have the opportunity to repent, but that may not be the case. But we know God gives up on us when we continue to deny Him (What Should We Do with Forbidden Sin?).
We need to be trusting and submissive rather than ambitious. That is what we need to turn toward in repentance (How Are We to be Children of God?).
Repentance is turning from sin. We are to turn toward God with a child-like disposition (How Are We to be Children of God?).
See Also
Does Repentance Negate Punishment?
- Sometimes when we sin, we can’t have a do-over. Once we start down the path of sin, we have to face the consequences, even if we have repented (When Sin Thinks It’s Won).
- We have to genuinely repent and suffer any associated consequences (When Sin Thinks It’s Won).
- We should quickly repent and submit to His judgment when we sin (What Does Omnipresent Mean?).
Did Jesus Have to Repent?
- Jesus didn’t have anything to repent, but being disobedient would have given Him something of which to repent. So, He went to John for baptism (What Is Baptism?).
Repentance in Relation to Other Churchy Words
- God forgave David (II Sam. 11). Jesus told the crowd to cast the first stone to stone the adulterous woman — but only if they were without sin (Jn. 8: 1-11). God can and will forgive us of sexual sins. He will even forgive us for turning our backs on Him. This is not the unpardonable sin. The unpardonable sin is disbelief. That forgiveness comes when we confess and repent (What Should We Do with Forbidden Sin?).
- Being blessed with peace is all wrapped up in our repenting of our sins, accepting the gift of salvation, being regenerated, and progressing along the Sanctification Road (What Is Peace?).
- Predestination, in a biblical sense, is being given salvation without choosing it and without repenting. Someone else has made the decision, and it can’t be prevented or changed (What Happens in the Middle of the Tribulation?).
Father. We repent of our sins. We not only ask Your forgiveness, but we also turn from those sins so we do not continue to commit them. We know we will continue to sin, so we will continue to ask Your forgiveness. Amen.
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