On Repentance

After John the Baptist baptized Christ, he continued on in his work - preaching and baptizing about Christ, for He was still generally unknown to men. He was also preparing the minds of men for repentance.

What is repentance???

Is it just the act of being sorry?

In the original Greek (the New Testament was originally written in Greek and the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew), the English word "repent" is actually the Greek word "metanoeo".

"Metanoeo" is defined in Strong's Greek Dictionary as the following - to think differently afterwards; to reconsider afterwards.

To be detailed the word "Metanoeo" breaks down into Meta + Noeio (hereafter + consider,perceive, understand, think).

To repent is perhaps to hereafter change the way we think and perceive circumstances ahead of us; it means to change the way we consider our actions and understand the Word of God. 

As Believers, we need to repent of the world's way of thinking in that what is important to the world, might not be important to us; and what we used to glorify self, should now be viewed as an opportunity to glorify God. 

As a man thinks, so is he," says Scripture. How we think affects how we come to be. If we continue to pursue the "old wineskin" school of thought, we will never be able to fit into our new wineskin and find it hard to come to see the glorious fulfillment of the promises made to us through the New Covenant in Christ Jesus. It is possible to be a believer and never know what it means to be more than a conqueror in Christ simply due to a lack of belief. & understanding.

What do you confess over yourself when you are unwell? "Aiya, grow old is like that wan lah Genetics mah. Just got to keep taking medicine lor." OR "By His stripes, I am healed. Jesus has healed all my iniquities and infirmities on the Cross. Praise God!"

Such a change of understanding first and foremost requires a heart transformation too. One's heart needs to be touched by the grace of  God for under the yoke of legalism, it will be tough to come to grow in our understanding of the LORD's love for us and how He has already WON the victory for us. It is precisely this love that fuels the want to change, and the understanding that Christ has won a perfect victory on the cross that helps us see how it is possible to transform for the better (rid ourselves of our weaknesses and problems) in Him!

SO...

Repentance is not about constantly saying sorry or being apologetic for each stumble along the journey as the Pharisees of yesteryear and today might want you to think is required of you. Instead it is the wisdom to see the need to change the way one believes, one speaks, one perceives where it is lacking, and turning away from these old ways of thinking into new thoughts that glorify God and that have the best opinion of our Heavenly Daddy.

We are forgiven the moment we receive Christ, and it is a gift that we cannot earn through our own merits, but through receiving that gift through faith in His faithfulness. Once we have received Jesus nothing can tear us away from Him - 

"For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our LORD."

- Romans 8:38-39

Also remember the words of our Shepherd- 

"Fear not Little Flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." - Luke 12:32

(BTW when you see a sentence seperated by the punctuation mark that is ; means that the first half and the second half mean the same thing. So here we are told that we fear not because our Father in Heaven is more than happy to give us the kingdom. Think Prodigal Son's Daddy - that's the sort of love our Heavenly Dad has for us... and so much more!!)