How to genuinely repent/have a right heart?

N

newktguy

New Member
I was looking up repentance and read a few blogs and listened to a sermon on repentance and found a few interesting things.


http://redeemerchurch.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/true-repentance-part-1/

This is a five part blog on true repentance. I linked part 1. It can explain what I am trying to say much better than I can.(

I keep straying from God and it seems like I am in a hole and I can't get out. It seems like my sins just keep getting worse and worse and I just asked God to show me what he wants me to do and to force his will to happen, regardless of what I want. I stumbled upon the topic of repentance. Maybe I am not sincere in my repentance? I mainly repent because of the consequences and troubles my sin brings, not because I care that I offended God.

If I didn't rely on God/Jesus for a few serious things in my life, I don't even think I'd continue to make an attempt to serve/follow him and I'd probably just go back to sinning and living in the world full time. I made a few attempts to just abandon God and go back into the world but that made my situation worse.

So am I really turning away from my sin when I repent, am I sorry that I offended God with my sin or am I just looking out for myself and worried about the consequences and what people will think of me etc?

I came to know God in December 2011 and looking back up until now, I don't think I ever really cared about how much my sin actually hurt God. I think I only came to him out of self will/desire.

Here is a sermon that really struck a cord with me, "How to Identify Genuine Repentance", it focuses on and examines Psalm 51.

http://www.thegracelifepulpit.com/Player.aspx?code=2011-04-03-PJ

It is lengthy so you may not want to listen but I found it very interesting.

I want to have true genuine repentance, how do I do that? How do I really repent of my sin, how do I feel the "godly grief" that Paul talked about that leads to repentance as opposed to "worldly grief"? How do I stop focusing on me and focus on God?

Please pray for me that my heart is right before God. I just feel overwhelmed a bit. I want to serve God for the right reasons and have a right heart but I don't know how.
 
I will sin and fall no matter what I do but for love I will get up and try again (and my knees are really scrapped up XD ). We should strive for the bar of perfection while knowing we will never meet it on Earth. Run the race like you want to be first place even if you aren't 1 Corinthians 9:24 . If I question my salvation I believe the saved will get up and try again while the unsaved will make an excuse as to why their sin is ok.

For the reason to try I don't see loving God, what is right or avoiding consequences as separate things. God is righteousness, I love righteousness for what is right works or is "good". What is "good morally" is always, eventually, "good enjoyable" but not the other way around. Sin can appear "good enjoyable" because it obfuscates it's un-enjoyable consequences by passing them to another or the future. Yet the consequences of sin remain even if we don't always, consciously, see them. Even if I sin in private, saying "this effects no one", that sin remains part of my life, changing me and how I interact with others. God is not a crotchety old man arbitrarily doling out rules. He made the machine of the universe to function in a certain manner and when we discard the operating instructions bad things happen.

I said a prayer for you :) .

Random thought: I always thought of the lyrics as "I fall down" :) .
 
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Hi,

I think that it is good that you are seeking true repentance. I know that I was terrible around half a year ago and God just made my anxiety-prone self take its toll and convict me of my "unregenerate" self. I struggled with pornography and lust in general for years but when that happened, I was in constant fear for months that God had forsaken me and that I was going to hell, but by God's grace, He has pulled me out of my old-self and is continuing to save me each day.

I think things that could help in getting a repentant heart is fasting. It doesn't have to be food, but maybe something else, something that takes your a lot of your time. I stopped my time on the computer and only used it to search for Scripture and sermons; this helped me when I was in fear during that time to actually get to know God and gradually fill the void that had been present for years.

I'll be praying for you as well and have high hopes that you can find rest and peace in God!
 
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