Repentance (How?) - (Sept. 7, 2006)

Ever wonder what it truly means to repent? How do you even go about repenting? Truthfully, i've asked the same question, recently. John Loftness, a Pastor at Covenant Life Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland has provided a practical guide to reaching true repentance. The following is The Path of Repentance and has graciously been permitted to us to use on this blog. Wherever you find yourself when reading this blog, read with diligent focus on how you must repent of the sin in your life.

Step 1: Pray

• Establish your dependence on God by praying for the Holy Spirit's help in this process.

Step 2: Identify the Sin

• Define its practice in biblical terms.
• Define your heart's motive for the sin in biblical terms.
• Define the lie-the false belief-that creatied this motive and its acts.

Step 3: Embrace the Gospel

• Meditate on how your sin offends God. Cultivate sorrow.
• Meditate on the fact that God sent Jesus to die in your place to overcome the offense this sin created.
• Pray. Admit your sin to God and ask Him to forgive you and to account this sin to Jesus' death on your behalf.

Step 4: Take Steps to Stop

• Collect on paper what the Bible says about your sin, its consequences, your forgiveness in Christ, and the Spirit's power at work in you to change. Memorize the most helpful passages.
• Purpose to change your thinking and behavior.
• purpose to change behavior that increases temptation:
• Places you go
• People with whom you interact
• Things you look at or listen to
• Words you say
• Confess your sin to those you've offended and seek their forgiveness. Make restitution if necessary.

Step 5: Replace Your Sin with Righteousness

• "Put on Christ." If you're a Christian, you are joined to Jesus Christ. His Spirit dwells within you. You can think and act as He does!
• Identify thoughts you can think or actions you take to replace:
• The lie with truth
• The sinful motive with a true motive for something else that pleases God
• Sinful behavior with righteous behavior

Step 6: Seek Fellowship as a Means of Grace

• If you haven't already, inform godly friends or a pastor of your sin and the process you are engaging in to change.
• Ask for their evaluation of the conclusions you've drawn, and adjust where needed.
• Make yourself accountable to walk along the specific path you've outlined above.

Step 7: Review

• Steps 1-5 daily.
• Step 6 for regular accountability.

This may seem difficult at first glance. The fact that it is never easy to kill something off in our lives which is what we are doing. Yet we find our strength only in Christ. You must devote yourself to these practices or something similar if you truly desire for that sin to no longer have any control over your life.

Have a great day today as you follow Christ more closely!

In Christ Alone,
Derrick


The Path of Repentance is an appendix in Joshua Harris' book Sex is not the Problem (Lust is). It was used by permission.

Harris, Joshua. Sex is not the Problem (Lust is). (Oregon: Multnomah Publishers, 2003)