How much repentance is enough?

Repentance and seeking God is an attitude of the heart, not an event. In business we would call it continuous quality improvement.

Jeremiah 5:3 – “O Lord, do not your eyes look for truth? You have struck them down, but they felt no anguish; you have consumed them, but they refused to take correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to repent.

Matthew 3:2 – “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:8 – Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

The Lord’s Prayer – Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

M. Basilea Schlink – Our objections – whether they be theological or psychological – usually have but one root: It is pride that makes us reject the message of repentance. For repentance means humbling ourselves before God and man, changing our ways and making amends. In doing so, we admit that our former ways were wrong, and that is humbling. No other sin is so firmly ingrained in our hearts as pride, especially in the hearts of those who acknowledge Jesus as their Savior.

To be spiritually alive is to live in repentance. Spiritually dead are those Christians who never weep over their sins or who have long ceased to do so. Dead – in God’s eyes – are those Christians who can no longer rejoice over God’s forgiveness. Whenever this joy is missing, even if we may call ourselves committed Christians, there is something wrong in our lives.