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SAYING SORRY

“… your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” 2 Corinthians7:9-11 NIV

There are several core principles for reconciliation. Without confession and repentance, reconciliation is not possible. Although the two words confession and repentance often go together, they are not the same. Maybe we were convicted of our sin after a sermon, at a Bible study, or a meaningful time of prayer. Perhaps a friend’s rebuke or a time of self-examination convicted us of sin. In these moments, the Holy Spirit gives a heart-wrenching conviction of sin. Emotional brokenness and convincing regret quickly follow, and we’re suddenly in agreement with God about our sins. This leads to confession. How many times have we seen this happen without genuine and lasting change? Why does genuine transformation still evade us? Confession may give us the impression that our work is done, failing to realise that it is just the beginning. This failure is why many people experience false transformation.

Repentance can be defined as feeling or expressing remorse about something. It is when an individual thinks about his past actions, evaluates them, and feels regret for the offenses that he has committed against other people, chooses to renounce the sin, turns away from the opposing thought, belief, or action that prompted the confession, and then walks the road of godly grief. Some of the biggest challenges to repentance are pride, minimizing or making excuses for our sins, or blame-shifting. To become a new person, we must die to our pride and embrace the path of repentance through a genuine surrender to biblical truth and putting to death our sinful desires. When we repent, we can experience God's forgiveness, receive His grace for inner transformation, and our behaviour will change. Then only can we rebuild trust with others, even if it takes longer than we planned.

Meditate on the scriptures provided before praying.

PRAYER POINTS

ME: If you earnestly desire Christ-likeness, it will come through prayerfully depending on God in true confession and repentance. Allow Him to convict you through godly sorrow.

US: Pray that Christians will allow the conviction of sin to bring them to a place of repentance and honest confession of sins so that the blood of Jesus can cleanse us and empower us to become instruments of reconciliation and instruments of righteousness in our nation.

THEM: Pray that the Holy Spirit will convict people in your nation of things that they personally did wrong and what our fathers (and mothers) did that was displeasing in the Lord’s sight.

Remember your John 17 memory verse.

"We will repeat this process—confession, prayer, repentance—over and over and over again. This is simply called Christianity. It is a hard, joyful, and life-long process of surrendering to God and pursuing the fruit of the Spirit. God has started a good work in us but He is not finished yet." -– Ty Gooch.