When Was the Last Time You Repented?
When Was the Last Time You Repented?
When you think of the word ‘repentance,’ what comes to mind?
Perhaps the story of the prodigal son, in which the son strayed away from his father, but then was sorry for what he did and returned home (Luke 15:11-32).
Or maybe you’ve thought that repentance is something you should only have to do one time, when you first receive salvation, turning away from your sins and toward Jesus; and if that’s the case, you may also think that someone having to repent again after salvation means that they must have done something truly awful.
Christian faith certainly does begin with repentance, but did you realize that repentance is supposed to be an ongoing and regular part of every Christian’s life?
Biblical repentance can be thought of as having a change of mind, so that how we think about something aligns with what God says is true about it.
You and I don’t naturally think like God does.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” - Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
This is why the Apostle Paul taught that Christians are supposed to change the way they live by letting God change the way they think… which is just another way of saying that Christians (not just non-Christians, and not just the prodigal Christians — all Christians) are called to repent.
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. - Romans 12:2 (NLT)
We tend to put a lot of emphasis on how someone feels being the marker for whether or not they’re truly repentant (e.g. if they feel bad enough for what they did wrong, then they’re truly repentant). But God has a different marker for true repentance, and that’s good news for us!
God knew that we can’t actually control the way we feel — at least not by starting with our emotions themselves. But what we can control, by God’s design, is how we choose to think about things. And interestingly enough, changing the way we think about things often changes our emotional response as well, along with our behavior.
Our salvation begins with a single act of repentance — changing our mind to agree with God that Jesus is Lord, and we are not; and that we are sinners, and Jesus is our only hope for salvation. But Christianity is a continuous process of repentance — allowing God to change our minds, little by little, day by day, so that we begin to think more and more like Him. Because when we think like Him, we’ll act like Him.
So having to repent is not a bad thing! It’s a human thing, and it’s something we should all be doing, as often as God shows us a way that our thinking (and consequently, how we’re feeling or acting) doesn’t line up with what He says is true. Repentance is simply the tool God uses to shape us into the people He’s called us to become!
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