How many times is our repentance much like the Israelites’, where we only repent when we are afraid of getting caught? True, life-changing repentance is a lasting repentance. And it is a repentance we can never achieve on our own. As totally depraved humans, we all are troubled by besetting sins, sins that we keep falling into no matter how hard we try not to. Even as Christians, we can quickly become convicted by a Sunday service, swear to give up this or that sin, only to fall into it again by Wednesday. True repentance can only be brought about by the Spirit and by looking to Christ. Only by clinging to Christ can we overcome our besetting sins and by His power put them off.
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1 Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you,