Being Sorry is not Repentance

“Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation...” (2 Corinthians 7:10).

This verse is a key verse in understanding what repentance is. Paul revealed that sorrow according to God’s will leads someone towards repentance, which leads someone towards salvation.
It looks like this: SORROW --> REPENTANCE --> SALVATION.

Sadly, what usually takes place in our lives is sorrow, but nothing else. We are sorry when we sin. We feel the guilt that comes with disobeying God, and we feel remorse for our sins. We might even utter a prayer asking for forgiveness when we realize what we’ve done. But none of that is repentance - those things only lead us to repentance.

Repentance can be defined as a change in mind that leads to a change in action. The sorrow is the change in mind, but it must be followed by a change in action in order to be repentance.

John the baptist told the Jewish leaders who came to him to be baptized that they needed to “bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). In Acts 19:19 the pagan worshippers came together and burned all of their magic books publicly as a display of their repentance. When Paul told King Agrippa about his mission work all over Asia, he told him that he preached, “that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds”(Acts 26:20). The message of repentance in the Bible is not that we should feel sorry for the sins we’ve committed. The message is that the sorrow we feel should change the way that we live moving forward.

So I want to ask a few questions to close this article:
What is the last thing you changed in your life out of repentance?
When is the last time you changed something in your life out of repentance?

Do you allow your sorrow towards God for your sins drive you to change the way you live?

-Kolton Ballance

Praying for the Nations Leaders

In 1 Timothy 2:1-2, Paul said, “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” Paul told Timothy that the church needed to be praying for people. Specifically the civil leaders of the place they lived - “kings and all in authority.” I can only imagine how challenging that must have been for people who watched the Romans mistreatment of Christians play out right in front of them. Yet Paul still said, “Pray for them.” Perhaps the fruit of their prayers wasn’t seen until years later when Christianity became the national religion of Rome.

It is no secret that we have been living in a challenging time with this countries leadership. We have seen leaders who have pushed for homosexuality to be legal. We have seen leaders who have pushed the transgender issues. We have seen leaders who have belittled those of the Chrisitian faith. Yet Paul said, “Pray for them.”

This past week on the news feed I saw I man named Mike Johnson, the speaker for the House of Representatives, stand up in front of this nation and appeal to the Bible as the sole authority for all things, I saw him claim that God has appointed all government authorities and that they have an obligation to Him, and I saw him get on his knees and pray for this nation. I believe many faithful Christians have been praying for this country and its leadership, and perhaps this man was answer to those prayers.

Don’t grow weary in praying for the place you find yourself living. Paul followed up his teaching in that passage by saying, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” God wants all who live in this world to know truth and be saved by the blood of Christ. Perhaps a godly influence in our government can spark some spirituality back into this nation and persuade many to look towards God in the face of this cruel world we live in. I challenge you and your congregation to stand up and thank God for godly leaders like Mike Johnson, and pray for more like Him to rise up and lead this country.

-Kolton Ballance