There’s 2 Main languages of the Bible: the Greek of the New Testament and Hebrew of the Old Testament. Each of all those languages has a specific word for repent- but only if we put the two languages together, do we get the full meaning of repentance.
The Greek word for repent, in secular language, is always translated- “to change your mind; to change the way you think.”
So first of all, repentance is changing your mind about the way you’ve been living.
For example: “I’ve been living to please myself and I’ve been doing my own thing and from now on I’m going to live to please Jesus my Savior.”
It’s a decision, as I said, it is not an emotion. You can repent without any obvious emotion, but you cannot repent without a change of your will.
The Hebrew word for repent means literally “to turn around”.
You’ve been facing the wrong way with your back to God- you turn 180 degrees and face God saying “God I’m sorry for my sins. God here I am, tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”
So you put the two together, and you have a complete picture of repentance.
Change your mind and change the way you’re thinking about your sin; then turn around toward God telling Him your sorrow for sinning against Him.
Faith comes only AFTER repentance.
The whole message of the bible is in this order: Repent and Believe.
I believe there are a lot of people who are struggling for faith. The truth is you’re not struggling for faith, you’ve never met the condition of repentance. You see, it’s the first of the six foundational doctrines and if you don’t have that foundational stone in place, the rest of what you’re building upon in your spiritual life will always be wobbly.
Preacher Derek Prince says “I have counseled hundreds of Christians, who come with their personal problems. After a lot of experience, I came to this conclusion; at least 50% of the problems that professing Christians are having is because they have never truly repented. They have never really changed their mind. They never really made a decision to the Lordship of Jesus in their life.
They’re still thinking of decisions from this point of view: “now if I do this-what will it do for me? If I do that-what will it do for me?”
When you’ve repented, that’s not the way you think. You think “If I do this, will it glorify Jesus? if I do that, will it glorify Jesus?”
And so we have many,many people who are double-minded. The Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. (James 1:8) He doesn’t have a solid foundation, so he can’t produce a stable building.
So, I encourage you to take a few moments and ask yourself-
“have I ever really truly repented? Or am I double-minded?”
Is it: “On Monday my aim is to please Jesus. On Tuesday my aim is to please myself.” ? See, you have the worst of both worlds. Because a double-minded person is like living with a split-personality. It’s pure confusion to live that way.
