Some may say: "Yes I know what the word repent means, I see
to whom I am to repent, I see some of the examples in the Bible
about repentance, but I am not sure HOW to repent. What words do
I use, what should I SAY to the Father in heaven?"
Well friends, our Father in heaven even helps us to know
what kind of words to use in coming to Him in humble repentance.
He gives us examples in His word even to guide us in this end -
to know what to say.
PRAYERS OF REPENTANCE
EZRA
"Then were assembled unto me everyone that TREMBLED at the
words of the God of Israel, because of the transgressions of
those, that had been carried away........O my God, I am ASHAMED
and BLUSH to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our INIQUITIES
ARE INCREASED OVER OUR HEAD, and our TRESPASS IS GROWN up into
the heavens.......We have FORSAKEN THY COMMANDMENTS........Should
we again break they commandments, and join in affinity with the
people of these abominations? Would you not be angry with us
till you have consumed us........"(Ezra 9:4-14).
NEHEMIAH
"Let thine ear now be attentive......Both I and my father's
house have sinned. We have DEALT VERY CORRUPTLY against thee,
and have NOT KEPT THE COMMANDMENTS, NOR THE STATUTES, NOR THE
JUDGMENTS, which you commandest your servant Moses........You are
JUST........You have done RIGHT. But we have DONE WICKEDLY.
Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our
fathers, KEPT THY LAW, NOR HEARKENED UNTO YOUR COMMANDMENTS AND
YOUR TESTIMONIES......."(Nehemiah 1:6-7; 9:33-34).
JOB
"I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: BUT NOW MY
EYE SEETH THEE. Wherefore, I ABHOR MYSELF AND REPENT in dust and
ashes "(Job 42:5).
DAVID
"Have MERCY UPON ME, O God.......Bot out my TRANSGRESSIONS.
WASH ME THOROUGHLY FROM MINE INIQUITY AND CLEANS ME FROM MY SIN.
For I ACKNOWLEDGE my TRANSGRESSIONS: and my sin is ever before
me. Against thee......have I sinned......PURGE ME with hyssop,
and I shall be clean......Hide your face from my SINS, and BLOT
OUT ALL MY INIQUITIES. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right spirit within me.......Take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation......Then will
I teach transgressors they ways; and sinners shall be converted
unto thee......For thou desirest not sacrifice.......You delight
not in burnt offering. The sacrifice of God are a BROKEN SPIRIT:
a broken and a CONTRITE HEART, O God, you will not despise"(Psalm
51:1-17).
ISAIAH
" .......Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of
UNCLEAN LIPS......For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts.......Our TRANSGRESSIONS ARE MULTIPLIED before thee, and
our SINS testify against us: for our transgressions are with us.
And as for our INIQUITIES, we KNOW THEM......But we are all as AN
UNCLEAN THING, AND ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE AS FILTHY RAGS; and
we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities like the wind have
taken us away"(Isaiah 6:5; 59:12; 64:6).
JEREMIAH
"O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do you
it for your name's sake: for our BACKSLIDINGS ARE MANY. We have
SINNED against you. We ACKNOWLEDGE, O Lord, our WICKEDNESS....
Let us SEARCH AND TRY our ways, and TURN AGAIN to the Lord. Let
us lift up our HEARTS WITH OUR HANDS UNTO GOD in the
heavens"(Jeremiah 14:7, 20; Lamentations 3:40-41).
DANIEL
"We have sinned, and HAVE COMMITTED INIQUITY, and have DONE
WICKEDLY, and have REBELLED, even by DEPARTING from thy PRECEPTS,
and from thy JUDGMENTS: neither have we HEARKENED unto thy
SERVANTS the prophets, which spake in thy name......"(Daniel
9:5,6).
CHRIST EXEMPLIFIES REAL REPENTANCE
PRODIGAL SON
"And when he CAME TO HIMSELF, he said.........I will arise
and go to my father, and will say unto him, father, I HAVE SINNED
AGAINST HEAVEN, AND BEFORE YOU, AND AM NO MORE WORTHY TO BE
CALLED YOUR SON. make me as one of your hired servants. And he
arose, and CAME TO HIS FATHER"(Luke 15:17-20).
PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN
"And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves, that they were righteous, and despised others. Two
men went up into the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the
other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with
himself: God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I
fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I posses. And
the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his
eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying: God, BE
MERCIFUL TO ME, A SINNER. I tell you, this man (the publican)
went down to his house JUSTIFIED rather than the other. For
everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that HUMBLES
himself shall be exalted"(Luke 18:9-14).
A FINAL WORD
Some of you think you may be too young or too old to REPENT
and serve the living Eternal God. The prophet Jeremiah thought he
was too young to be called by God, but he was not. If you are a
middle teenager you may not be too young for God to call you to
real repentance. Even if you are still younger than a teenager
God may call you to begin to know Him and His way of life. We
have examples of Samuel and Jeremiah who were called to serve God
while still very young. David walked with God as a young boy
caring for his father's sheep.
What if you are old, maybe very old? Well as the saying
goes: You are never too old to learn. Whether you are 60 or 80
or 90 or 100, if God is calling you to REPENT then it is not too
late to do so!
Some of you have or are serving a prison term for various
crimes. You may think you are not worthy for God to have mercy
upon you. Well, no sinner(and that includes the ones who have
never been in prison or even received a parking ticket) is of
themselves worthy to be a child of the most High. But Jesus came
to die for you no matter what your sins and crimes against
society. You can friend, REPENT and be FORGIVEN, have your sins
WASHED AWAY by the blood of Jesus and start a new life
as a son or daughter of the heavenly Father.
Some of you may have been or still are, prostitutes,
homosexuals, lesbians, drug users, drug dealers, child molesters,
alcoholics, wandering street livers with no hope only despair.
Whatever your situation in life is at the present, YOU CAN REPENT
AND CRY OUT TO THE LORD FOR MERCY AND HELP! You can be forgiven
your sins and begin a new life in the service of the Eternal. It
is never too late.
Determine NOW to come out of the darkness and deception you
have been living in and ENTER God's world of LIGHT and
RIGHTEOUSNESS!
The rewards here and now are fantastic and the eternity to
come is beyond human imagination.
Some of you have been let down by religious organizations
and their leaders. You have seen the corruptions, play acting,
hypocrisy, abuse of power, abuse of monies, you have heard the
lies, experienced the cover-ups, and have come to realize you
were in many ways manipulated and brain washed with a cultic mind
set ruling you. Many of you have been turned off so much from
"religion" that you have left serving the true God and
gone back into the world of Satan, gone back into your former old
man and false un- righteous ways of living that God calls sin and
iniquity. You knew the basic truths of God at one time but now
you have possibly thrown them to one side, cast them away like
some old dirty garment. If this is you, then YOU can REPENT, it
is not too late. God calls you back to SERVE HIM! He calls you
back again to find that personal relationship with Him and not
some organization or some human man.
Maybe you are just the nice guy or gal on the block. Never
done anyone any harm. Would not hurt a fly as they say. No big
sins in your life you might claim. You are a good wife, husband,
father or mother. You work at your job faithfully and honestly.
You help in local charities, and just live a decent moral
lifestyle.
All that is good and commendable, but friend, you HAVE
SINNED ALSO. You have said, thought, or acted at some point/s in
your life CONTRARY to the Holy Law of the Lord God. You have
somewhere at some time BROKEN ONE or MORE of the Ten
Commandments of God. You stand as a sinner in the eyes of the
Lord. You are CONDEMNED TO DIE UNLESS YOU WILL REPENT !
There is no way around it, from the hardened criminal to the
Mr. Nice guy, all of us must REPENT of our sins to obtain mercy
and find the pathway to eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
Repentance is the FIRST STEP on the road to living for all
eternity. REAL REPENTANCE is what all of us must EXPERIENCE if
we are to be saved.
".........Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of
the Kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled and the
Kingdom of God is at hand: REPENT YOU, and believe the gospel"
(Mark 1:14,15).
……………………………
First written in 1987. Re-written and revised in 1997.
by Keith Hunt
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