True Repentance

Psalm 103:8-13
"The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in Mercy.
He will not always chide: neither will he keep his anger for ever.
He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him."

How great is our God! Those He has chosen have received His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness! Those who have repented of their sins have been washed clean, their transgressions have been removed, and their iniquities blotted out! We are being sanctified and perfected to be holy as He is holy. Hallelujah!

But how do you know that you are one of His chosen vessels? How do you know if the LORD has chosen to forgive you of your sins and not reward you according to your iniquities? The Bible tells us that in order to receive forgiveness of sins you must repent. Let's take a look at what repentence really means.

To repent means to turn away. So, to repent of your sins means to turn away from your sins. We do this by confessing our sins, for "if we confess our sins, he (God) is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

Then we turn to Jesus Christ: "All the prophets testify about him (Jesus) that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name." (Acts 10:43) When we confess our sins and put our trust in Jesus Christ, we have assurance that He has forgiven us.

Now that we have confessed our sins and turned to Jesus, our actions (our fruit) will show us whether or not we have truly been forgiven. When God forgives us, He gives us a new heart, and our desires change. We are not to take His grace as liberty to sin, but use His grace as means to grow in holiness. We should all have a reverential fear of the LORD, knowing that we are undeserving of this forgiveness, yet thankfully receiving it as the free gift that it is.

We will all make mistakes, we will still have faults, but the key is to confess those faults and ask God to help you change. Don't accept them. If you battle with fear, don't confess you are fearful, instead confess what God's Word has spoken concerning you: "God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of love and of a sound mind." If you wrestle with anxiety, don't confess you are an anxious person, but speak what the Word requires of you "I am anxious for nothing!" Spirits will try to attach themselves to you, and you must recognize that the way you feel, the way you act, and the way you think is not always you! Don't allow things that are not of God to become part of your "personality". Our personality now is one of "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control." If you are saved, the Holy Spirit now lives within you, and everything else has to flee! Submit yourself to God, resist the devil (and his demons) and they have no choice but to flee! Put to death the deeds of the flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit, because they should have no part in you! Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries have no place in the Christian.

Repentance is an ongoing process. There is an initial repentence for living a lifestyle of sin before we are saved, but once we are saved we must repent for all of the wrongdoing we find ourselves doing when we walk in the flesh. The goal of every born again beliver should be to walk in the Spirit 24/7 just as Jesus did.