 Repentance is not just feeling shame for your wrongdoing. Repentance is not just walking around with guilt hanging over your head. That's the religious approach to making yourself right with God. Guilt can't save you. Shame can't save you. Lack of self-confidence can't save you. Beating yourself up over and over and over again over the mistakes that you made, that can't save you. That's not what does it. If you wanna be free from sin, you have to do more than just feel bad about it. You have to do more than just go, oh, Lord, I did it again, I'm so sorry. You have to come to this place where you're deeply convicted and convicted doesn't mean I feel bad. A conviction is a deeply held belief. To be convicted of something means I believe it with all my heart. So you have to come to the place where you believe, you know, you recognize that that thing that you're allowing in your life is destroying you. You have to come to the place where you say to God, God, I agree, this thing needs to go. I agree, this thing in my life doesn't belong there. And here's how deceptive the flesh is because we'll think that just because we felt bad for it and then committed, Lord, I'll never do it again, that we therefore are somehow able to go on with our conscience clean. No, that's not how it works. Is there truly an intention to never do that again or is there just a desire to not fill the guilt? Oh, I'm gonna ask that again. I sense the Holy spirit on that. Is there really an intention to not do that again or is there just a desire to not fill the guilt? Ask yourself, do I really intend to put this thing aside? Do I really intend to remove this from my life or do I just desire that the guilt go away? Do I just want relief in the mind? And only you can truly know that answer because what begins to happen is we fall into these patterns where we go from feeling bad to doing it again, from feeling bad to doing it again, from feeling bad to doing it again, over and over and over and over again. It's not in the feeling bad that you find freedom, though you should. The Bible says, Godly sorrow worketh repentance. It's Godly sorrow that works repentance. You have to have sorrow over your sin but sorrow alone won't liberate you. You have to truly say to yourself, I am going to give this up and not just for one week, not just for the next six months but this thing in my life, I am committing now to never allowing it back again, not at any one point and not in any degree, not in any measurement because sometimes I think we convince ourselves that if we keep the sin small, as they say in our minds at least, if we can keep it small, that therefore it doesn't affect us as much but just because you never get caught for something doesn't mean that it's not affecting you. Doesn't mean that it's not out there in some way. It's deeply affecting you. So you have to commit, Lord, I agree with you, this is wrong and I want to never come back to this place again. I wanna get rid of this thing completely, not in increments, not just a little bit, not just certain degrees of it but Lord, I wanna get rid of this thing completely and I agree with you. Repent means literally to change your mind and repentance in the context of the gospel is to change my mind to the point that I'm turning from my sin, a change in the mind that results in the turning from sin. That's what biblical repentance is but it starts in the mind. I have to first agree. God, I agree with you, this is wrong and I'm gonna stop playing games. I'm gonna stop lying to myself saying, oh yeah, I'm giving it up but I'm really giving it up for just a few days or just until I can't take it anymore. Whatever the sin may be, lying, lust, pride, greed, it's all the same. It can lead to certain cycles that need to be broken. So it comes now to the place where we say, Lord, I want this completely removed from my life. I don't want even a little bit and I don't wanna come back to it in a few weeks or at some point. You know, the Bible says that when we are tempted, it's because we're taken away by our own lusts. Why did you sin? Because you wanted to. Why did you sin? Because you chose to, period, period, period. And this must be acknowledged if we're to get things right with God. God, I agree with you and I want it out of my life forever and I want it gone in all forms and in all sizes. I don't even want a little bit of it in. I wanna get rid of all of it. So we have to confess that sin. Confession is not just admitting that I sinned. Confession of sin is not just admitting that I did the sin. Confession of sin is also acknowledging that it's wrong, saying, God, this is wrong. This pattern is wrong. This cycle is wrong. This constant coming to you again and again. That is wrong and I know it. And I'm sorry, I'm not saying he won't forgive you. I'm saying that if you really wanna be free, you have to change your mind about it and completely turn from that sin. Also, help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.