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Smith Wigglesworth was a set apart preacher from many years ago. The power of God and some of the most amazing miracles anyone has seen were continuously revealed through him. A specific story has stuck with me for many years from one of his books. A man was criticizing people in the church who over and over again would come up to the front of the church and repent or recommit their life to God at the altar. I have never forgotten Smith Wigglesworth’s powerful response to the man: There is always room for repentance.
I’ve mentioned before that growing up, I don’t remember receiving a lot of teaching on asking for forgiveness. I love learning and growing in this area now that I have the desire to have a heart that is willing to repent to God.
In the Bible, God tells Israel that they need to return to Him because their sins have brought them down. He tells them specifically how they can return to right standing with the Lord:
Hosea 14:2-3a
Bring your confessions, and return to the Lord. Say to him, “Forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises.
Assyria cannot save us, nor can our warhorses. Never again will we say to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’
For the fatherless receives compassion in You.
Bring your confessions to the Lord. If we want God to heal us, we need to acknowledge what we did that drew us away from Him. Often, we really don’t want to mention too much about what we did wrong, we just want to get on to being right with God. But, there’s something about saying specifically what we did and acknowledging to God that we were wrong that can bring us to a place of humility which allows God to move in us.
Ask God to forgive us. It is a beautiful thing to actually ask God to forgive us. God’s forgiveness brings healing and life to us, and it is an act of humility to go before Him and ask Him to bestow that forgiveness on us.
Ask God to graciously receive us. We do not deserve to be received by God. In His rich mercy and goodness to us, we know that the only reason we can go to Him is by His grace to us. I’m not so arrogant as to believe that I can come before God on my own. It’s His generous grace that allows me to be forgiven and be received by Him.
Offer God our praises. We don’t take His forgiveness lightly. We are always finding a new reason to praise Him and thank Him for all He is doing in our life. We say, “Thank You God for saving me! Thank You God for forgiving me!”
Recognize our need for God. When we return to God, we let Him know that we realize that we can’t do this on our own. We can’t help ourselves – we need Him!
We determine to not return to our sins. We say Never Again! This is not a half-hearted mumbled I’m sorry. This is a determination to never again sin against God in the way that so regrettably turned us away from Him.
This is how our loving Lord responds to our repentance:
Hosea 14:4
“Then I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever..”
Such a beautiful Father we have that as we repent, He pours His love richly upon us and turns His anger from us.
Our repentance must never be just an outward show. Not we are sorry if someone finds out about it, or we are sorry if we got caught. No, repentance is a matter of our hearts crying out to be close to God without the blockades that our sins create.
Joel 2:12-13
That is why the Lord says, “Turn to me now, while there is time. Give me your hearts. Come with fasting, weeping, and mourning.
Don’t tear your clothing in your grief, but tear your hearts instead.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. He is eager to relent and not punish.
God’s wrath is no joke and something we should all have a healthy fear of, but the message of hope is that His desire is to spare us from that wrath and show us His goodness. We can’t toy around with sin just waiting for our time to run out. The time to repent is as soon as we realize we have done wrong. The way to repent is to come before God humbly with a broken heart over what we’ve done, and with a determination to love God all the more as we receive His unfailing love and forgiveness.
God, I don’t want to be the type of person that is only sorry for sin in my life when others find out about it. I want a heart that desires to rid my life of anything that is displeasing to You or hinders my relationship with You. Please help me to verbally ask for Your forgiveness and confess to You when I do wrong. I praise You for Your love and graciousness to me and I thank You for always receiving me when I come to You with repentance.