It is rare these days that we hear of or see a repentant heart such as penned by John Wesley (1703-1791) copied below. We need more pastors and more spiritual leaders to be this kind of an example before the Body of Christ. We don’t need celebrities. We don’t need entertainment in the Church. We need examples of humility who will lead us away from worldly attributes and the “pride of life” – I John 2:16. We, that includes you and me, need to cultivate and nourish a humble heart.

The Psalmist prayed, “Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; Let them not have dominion over me (Psalm 19:12-13).”

Spiritual growth and maturity is not measured by one’s skills, gifts, charisma, popularity, or materialism (or the lack thereof). How about humility? How about one’s faithfulness to the Savior? Understanding who you are and who you aren’t, and living accordingly? I’m thinking of the progressive growth in the Beatitudes as a type of self-measurement.

Humble repentance; ask the Lord to help you develop humility in your prayers, in your walk before Him, and your life before the world.

Forgive them all, O Lord;
Our sins of omission and our sins of commission;
The sins of our youth and the sins of our riper years;
The sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies;
Our secret and our more open sins;
Our sins of ignorance and surprise,
And our more deliberate and presumptuous sin;
The sins we have done to please ourselves,
And the sins we have done to please others;
The sins we know and remember,
And the sins we have forgotten;
The sins we have striven to hide from others
And the sins by which we have made others offend You;

Forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all for His sake,
Who died for our sins and rose for our justification,
and now stands at Your right hand to make intercession for us,
Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Christian isn’t someone who repents one time and then never again acknowledges personal sin. A Christian is someone who never stops repenting. Does this sound like a contradiction to your faith that you’ve already been forgiven? The Apostle John didn’t think so. He wrote (I John 1:10) “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us.” John tell us in the previous verse to, “confess our sins” because “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Let’s be clear on this repenting thing! Repenting is not a “work” by which the Christian obtains or maintains salvation. Repentance is a humble acknowledgement that I’m still sinning and still need the Gospel–100%. It is an expression of complete dependence upon the love and mercy of Christ Jesus, our propitiation (I John 2:1-2).

Why is repentance an ongoing practice to the Christian? Because he loves holiness and hates sin. Because he desires to please the Father and to follow his Master in truth and righteousness. Because he wrestles with sin but also knows that the power of sin is broken in his life. He repents out of godly sorrow and never, never stops trusting the eternal saving power of the Gospel that keeps him in Christ.

One reason that I wrote on this subject is because I am constantly working on this virtue in my life. A personal aid that reminds me of who I am and who I am not, and helps me to get my mind off of me and dependent upon my God, other than the scriptures, is a book of Puritan prayers and poems– The Valley of Vision. I use this book in my morning prayers. There is nothing like it out there. Check it out.

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