Craig T. Owens

This is a weekly series with things I’m reading and pondering from Oswald Chambers. You can read the original seed thought here, or type “Thursdays With Oswald” in the search box to read more entries.

True Repentance 

     The essence of repentance is that it destroys the lust of self-vindication; wherever that lust resides the repentance is not true. Repentance brings us to the place where we are willing to receive any punishment under heaven so long as the law we have broken is justified. That is repentance, and I think I am right in saying that very few of us know anything at all about it. 

     We have the idea nowadays that God is so loving and gentle and kind that all we need do is to say we feel sorry for the wrong we have done and we will try to be better. That is not repentance. Repentance means that I am re-made on a plane which justifies God in forgiving me. 

From Conformed To His Image 

What is your definition of repentance?

If my definition only includes feeling sorry for being wrong, I have missed it. But when my heart breaks over my sin because I know my sin pierced the very heart of God, and when I am willing to receive God’s just punishment for that violation, and when I am awed that God forgives me and extends His mercy to a sinner such as me, and I begin to live in a totally new way than what led to my sin before, that is the essence of true repentance.

With that in mind, I need to ask myself, “Have I truly repented of my sins?”