What Repentance Looks Like

Nancy DeMoss in her study on personal revival entitled Seeking Him makes these statements about repentance:

The purpose of repentance is not to make us feel better about ourselves but to restore us to a right relationship with God, so that our lives may again bring glory to Him and be used for His purposes. That is what personal revival is all about!


DeMoss continues:

So what does a repenter look like?...

• A repenter renews his/her mind with truth from Scripture consistently. He/she is aware that the battle against temptation is first waged in the mind and that the process of repentance begins there as well.
• A repenter responds to God immediately. At the first sign of conviction, he/she agrees with God about sin, turns from it, and turns toward the Lord.
• A repenter obeys God completely. His/her repentance is thorough, and does not cast a longing look back at sin. He/she forsakes the temporary pleasure of sin for the abiding joy of God's blessing.
• A repenter follows God personally. He/she does not base commitment to God on what others are doing. "Though no one joins me, still I will follow" expresses the attitude of the heart.
• A repenter accepts God's discipline faithfully. Realizing that sin has consequences, he/she accepts the Lord's discipline as an act of love and as a reminder when faced again with sin.

She concludes:

Responding to God is more important than whatever you were planning on doing next. If God is speaking, the time to respond is now. Will you humble yourself and allow Him to begin restoring you?


Think through what DeMoss suggests are signs of one who repents. Consider each point personally. Do these signs represent your heart to be right with God?

PERSONAL REFLECTION

(Contemplate God’s Word to you)

What was the most significant thought you received from this session?

Why do you think God implanted this upon your heart?

What do you think God wants you to do as result of what you have heard?

Is there anything that might keep you from receiving/doing/obeying what you heard?

Ask His help in achieving what He spoke to you.

Thank God for what you have heard; remember and apply it to your life.

USELESS RELIGION?

James 1:21-27 says, “21…lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 22But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. 26If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (NKJV)

When I think of the founding fathers of this great Republic of the United States I think of men of great faith and a religion of power; a religion pure and undefiled before the God of the universe. A “useless religion” would have been satisfied to remain in the homeland and accept a life of tepid tolerance and compromise. No. Our founding fathers, the signers of our constitution, considered their God-given right to liberty as a higher calling than subservience to a king, a monarch.

Founder Charles Carroll:
Signer of the Declaration of Independence said, "On the mercy of my Redeemer I rely for salvation and on His merits; not on the works I have done in obedience to His precepts." From an autographed letter in our possession written by Charles Carroll to Charles W. Wharton, Esq., on September 27, 1825, from Doughoragen, Maryland. (Source: Wallbuilders.com)

Pray for America. Pray for each other. Awakening must come to America! It has been one hundred years since the last great awakening (1905-06). Our one great hope is the intervention of God. Lay aside the sin that does so beset your life and receive the Word of God with meekness which is able to save your souls. It will reflect accurately the condition of your heart…what kind of man or woman you have become.

If you look into the ”perfect law of liberty,” the Word of God, you will see what our forefathers saw. You will see not a “useless religion” but religion of power and strength through a risen Savior. You will see Jesus. You will see a religion born of God for the renewal and awakening of your heart.

TAKE AWAY – PERSONAL REFLECTION

(Contemplate God’s Word to you)

What was the most significant thought you received from this session?

Why do you think God implanted this upon your heart?

What do you think God wants you to do as result of what you have heard?

Is there anything that might keep you from receiving/doing/obeying what you heard?

Ask His help in achieving what He spoke to you.

Thank God for what you have heard; remember and apply it to your life.