True Repentance

Over the next few weeks I will be posting some short "blurbs" that have been on my mind for a while. I fear they are likely to be heavy reading, but hopefully short and sweet will counter balance that a little. Thanks for stopping by.

Repentance:     
1.deep sorrow, compunction, or contrition for a past sin, wrongdoing, or the like.     
2. regret for any past action.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/repentance 

We talk about repentance as turning from sin...and in the process we often forget that it includes Godly sorrow for sin. Usually the two go hand in hand, but sometimes we end up with one and not the other. The most obvious form of that is someone who is sorry for the sin, but not enough to turn from it. But what about the person who stops sinning but isn't really sorry for what they have already done?

For instance, you are absolutely dying to go tell your best friend what you heard about "So-and-So". You know it's gossip, but you tell her anyway. Doing so relieves your pent-up need to talk about it and so you "stop gossiping" because you know to continue spreading it wouldn't be pleasing to God...but you aren't really sorry about telling it the first time.

That is a super simplistic example, but I hope it demonstrates the point - we need to be very careful that we don't allow ourselves to fall into the dangerous pit of being willing to stop doing something displeasing to God without being sorry we did it in the first place. For it to be true repentance that will elicit God's forgiveness it must include both the Godly sorrow and the turning from sin.