The "R" Word

Luke 13:5 No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

Repent is a word that I fear really needs to be addressed in our society today. Here is a story I found that I’m afraid all to well represents the R word today.

Jimmy had trouble pronouncing the letter “R” so his teacher gave him a sentence to practice at home: “Robert gave Richard a rap in the rib for roasting the rabbit so rare.”

Some days later the teacher asked him to say the sentence for her. Jimmy rattled it off like this: “Bob gave Dick a poke in the side for not cooking the bunny enough.”
He had evaded the letter “R.”

There are a lot of people today—including Christians—who go to great lengths to avoid the “R” word of “Repentance.”

I have long went with the definition of repentance as turning from sin and going in the other direction. I now believe that I need to add to that definition: having a hate for that sin. Many will turn from sin for fear of being caught, or fear of punishment it’s not that they hate or even dislike what they are doing. It’s kind of like paying all my taxes, I pay my all of my taxes out of a fear of going to prison. I don’t do it for the sheer joy of it. Repentance is not remorse or feeling sorry for what you did. It’s much more than that. Many ask for forgiveness and keep right on doing whatever it was they had just asked forgiveness for. That’s not going to fly because besides trusting in Jesus and asking for forgiveness, true repentance is also required to enter Heaven. So stop and think about the sin in your life. Have you stopped doing it? If so have you asked for forgiveness for it? And lastly have you turned from it and hate it

If an unregenerate man should leave off sin under fear of death or hell, it would not be out of hatred to sin, but out of the fear of the punishment, as the bird is kept from the bait by the scarecrow. ~ Thomas Manton

If your sorrow is because of certain consequences that have come on your family because of your sin, this is remorse, not true repentance. If, on the other hand, you are grieved because you also sinned against God and his holy laws, then you are on the right road. ~ Billy Graham