If you’ve ever felt like you’ve made too many mistakes and drifted away from God, you can turn around and draw closer to God again through repentance. Repenting from your sins is a positive choice, not a negative one. Repentance is actually a gift from God. It’s not a rebuke to kick you out. It’s a reset designed to bring you closer. When you decide to repent of the choices that kept you away from God, He will forgive you and welcome you back with open arms. Repentance will cause you to experience spiritual rebirth and resurrection. Here are eight ways repentance can renew you spiritually.
1. Turn away from sin and turn toward God: You may feel like you’ve been down the wrong path for so long that there’s no way back to God. But the heart of the gospel is that you are always welcome to return to God. Acts 3:19 urges: “Repent, then, and turn to God, and your sins will be blotted out, and times of refreshment will be given to you from the Lord.” If you feel spiritually burnt out, take an honest inventory of where your life is heading right now. Do you chase your worries and try to solve problems yourself, or do you put your relationship with God at the center of your life and trust that He will help you in any situation? When you choose to focus on God and make decisions that bring you closer to Him, He will give you peace and you will experience complete rebirth. You will feel very refreshed and motivated to continue making daily choices that draw you closer to God.
2. Bringing the darkness into God’s light: One of the most difficult things to deal with when returning to God is the feeling of shame for what you did wrong. You may think that God may love you less than he would have if you had not made the mistake. But God loves you unconditionally and is willing to forgive whenever you confess your sins and help you learn and grow. The Bible promises in 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” When you confess, you are essentially agreeing with God that what you did was wrong and that you want to do what is right from now on. Reading this verse gives you confidence that God is always “faithful and just” to forgive and cleanse you. God’s light is always stronger than the darkness of sin. The price for your mistakes has already been paid because of what Jesus did on the cross to save the world. Now you can tell God about all the sins in your life without fear of rejection. When you talk to God about your sins and ask for forgiveness, He washes away your shame until you feel like your true self again. God is faithful and will always do it.
3. Let God do the creative work. Spiritual rebirth is not a do-it-yourself project. We can pray as vulnerable and honest as King David did when he struggled with regret. It is written in Psalm 51:10-12: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew within me a steadfast spirit. Do not cast me out from your presence, nor take away your Holy Spirit from me; restore to me the joy of your salvation, and give me a spirit of willingness to sustain me.” The word “creation” here refers to God creating something out of nothing. When you pray this, you are asking God for a miracle to occur in your soul, a completely new heart. When you recognize that you need God’s creative power to change your desires (rather than trying to change them yourself), God gives you a pure heart that is in alignment with His will so you can desire what He wants. You can ask God to give you a “willing spirit” by asking God’s Holy Spirit to give you desires that reflect God’s best for you. God loves to answer this type of prayer. Because he loves to see his children walking with joy and not just out of obligation. God wants to restore the “joy of salvation” by reminding you that being close to Him is a blessing to enjoy.
4. Let God’s kindness inspire you to make better choices. God’s kindness is meant to prompt you to repentance. Romans 2:4 points out: “Or do you despise the riches of God’s kindness, patience, and patience, not knowing that His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” When you make a mistake, God is not standing over you and preaching to you, He is trying to instill fear in you so that you will make better choices in the future. Rather, God responds with kindness when you make a mistake. God is always intentionally good to you. He kindly encourages you and helps you make better choices. God’s kindness toward you naturally motivates you to do better. It’s similar to receiving a warm hug instead of a harsh reaction when a child does something wrong. Such love motivates you to draw closer to God. So the next time you feel the urge to run away from God because you’re ashamed of your mistakes, stop and remember how good God actually is to you. Focusing on God’s loving kindness will motivate you to do better in the future.
5. Understand that it’s not too late to return to God: You may feel like you’ve come too far to return to God and think it’s too late to try. But God has a message for you that breaks through that lie. In Joel 2:12-13 he says: “‘Even now,’ says the Lord, ‘return to me with all your heart, with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.’ Tear your heart, not your clothes. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and gracious, slow to anger, rich in love, and does not cease to bring harm upon you.” The word ‘even now’ is one of the most powerful words in all of Scripture. It shows us that no matter how late we delay or how many times we make the same mistakes, it is never too late to return to God. God wants your heart to be moved by His love. When we are honest about our hurt, we can finally welcome God to show us that He is truly “Merciful and Compassionate.” God is gracious and gives you time to repent every day of your earthly life.
6. Receive a new heart from God: Over time, repeated sin and all the pain that comes from that sin can dull the voice of God and make you indifferent to His love. But God promises in Ezekiel 36:26, “I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away from you your heart of stone, and I will give you an heart of flesh.” God doesn’t just want to repair your old heart. He wants to give you a whole new heart. God wants a complete heart transplant for you. Then you can become aware of God’s presence again and connect with Him in a purely loving relationship. When God replaces your “heart of stone” with a “heart of flesh,” you will find it easier to feel His presence and embrace His love for you.
7. Forget the past to find the new work God is doing. Repentance helps you forget past sins and look forward to what God will do next in your life. Don’t repeat old mistakes in your mind. Instead, follow this advice from Isaiah 43:18-19: “Forget what was before. Don’t dwell on the past. Behold, I am doing a new thing, and it is springing up now. Do you not realize that I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wilderness?” So after you ask God for forgiveness, stop punishing yourself for things that God has already forgiven and wants you to forget. God does not want you to live in the wasteland of the past. Instead, he wants you to look for “new things” that he is trying to instill in your life. Even if your life feels like a wilderness right now because of the choices you’ve made, God will provide a path for you to walk out of the wilderness and into a better future.
8. Run toward your heavenly Father who is running toward you: Remember the Biblical story of the prodigal son, told by Jesus in Luke 15:11-32?The son spent everything he had in a sinful life and fell into desperate poverty. When she finally decided to return home, she feared that her father would no longer accept her. But the father “ran to his son, put his arms around him, and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). This is a powerful picture of what happens when you decide to turn to God. You may be walking slowly towards God, worried that He will no longer accept you. But God is running towards you! God is a loving Heavenly Father who will meet you wherever you are and embrace you with unconditional love.
In conclusion, you will never be so devastated as to turn to God through repentance. Then God will forgive you and help you experience a powerful spiritual rebirth. Don’t live in shame or worry anymore. Now turn to God and you’ll be glad you did!
Photo credit: ©GettyImages/Suwaree Tangbovornpichet
Whitney Hopler helps people discover the wonders of God and experience awe. She is the author of several books, including the nonfiction books Wake Up to Wonder and Wonder Through the Year: A Daily Devotional for Every Year, and the young adult novel Dream Factory. Whitney has served as an editor at major media organizations including Crosswalk.com, the national publication of the Salvation Army USA, and Dotdash.com (producing the popular Angels and Miracles channel). She currently leads communications operations at George Mason University’s Center for Human Services Advancement. Connect with Whitney on her website www.whitneyhopler.com and on her Facebook author page.
