“The time promised by God has come at last!” he announced. “The Kingdom of God is near! Repent of your sins and believe the Good News!” Mark 1:15 (NLT)
Many of us think that repenting involves brokenness and tears as we sob on the floor. But the word repent simply means to change your mind and change your direction. With that in mind, it’s likely that we need to have a repentant attitude all the time regarding one area of life or another!
When it comes to change, the book of Proverbs gives us three distinct steps: knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Now, I can’t tell how much knowledge or understanding you have, but I can tell how much wisdom you have. How? Because wisdom is the application of knowledge. It’s putting what you know into practice.
Maybe you’re in crisis mode right now, or there’s an area of your life where you’ve stopped growing. Let Holy Spirit guide you into all truth (John 16:13). Then repent—change your mind and direction as you put that truth into practice.
If you think you’ve blown it and there’s no hope left, I have good news. Psalm 23:6 (NKJV) says, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In other words, goodness and mercy have been following you the whole time! Mercy is God’s willingness to forgive you, and His goodness can’t wait to break into your life.
You don’t need an emotional epiphany to change. Simply ask God to help you put the truth into action, saying, “I’ve been going about this my way, but I’ve changed my mind and am going to start doing this God’s way.” That’s real repentance and real wisdom.