What does it mean to repent?
"Peter replied, 'All of you must turn away from your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then your sins will be forgiven. You will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'" (Acts 2:38).
"Godly sadness causes us to turn away from our sins and be saved. And we are certainly not sorry about that! But worldly sadness brings death" (2 Corinthians 7:10).
"The Lord is not slow to keep his promise. He is not slow in the way some people understand it. Instead, he is patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed. Instead, he wants all people to turn away from their sins" (2 Peter 3:9).
To repent means to change your mind.You have probably heard your pastor at church talk about repentance. Many people believe repentance means to turn away from our sin. However, it actually means to change our minds. For example, instead of wanting to commit a sin, we will make the choice to see the sin as God sees it: terribly wicked. By changing the way we view things, we will be able to follow God more faithfully.
True repentance will cause us to change our actions (Acts 3:19). When we have truly repented from our sins, we will try to not participate in these bad behaviors anymore. While we will still struggle at times, we will be better equipped to turn away from sinful behaviors because we have changed our minds concerning the sin. Ultimately, repentance leads us to change.
Repentance and salvation are two different things, but they are connected. Repentance helps us to change our minds about Jesus, sin, and eternity. Instead of rejecting Jesus, we have chosen to believe in Him. This, in turn, leads to placing our faith in Him. Once we have placed our faith in Him, we are given salvation. Repentance is a beautiful thing, as it always brings us back to God.
