I am doing my bible lesson, and if you need the verse, it is 2 chronicles 29:1-36. Please help me!
Responses (1)
WHAT MOTIVATES TRUE REPENTANCE
The sadness accompanying true repentance has a very different motivation than worldly sadness. There is a heartfelt wanting to come back into God’s favor, motivated by a love for him that comes from knowing him and his splendid qualities and righteous purposes. Appreciation for his goodness and greatness makes genuinely repentant wrongdoers feel keen remorse at having brought reproach on his name. Love for neighbor also makes them rue the harm they have done to others, the bad example set, the hurt caused, perhaps the way they have sullied the reputation of God’s people among outsiders, thereby hindering persons from recognizing the true congregation of God. These things, and not just the shame of being ‘found out’ or the prospect of discipline, cause them to feel “broken at heart” and “crushed in spirit.”—Ps. 34:18.
But repentance (Gr. me·taŹ¹noi·a) also involves a ‘change of mind’ or ‘change of will.’ To be genuine, it must include a positive rejection of the bad course as repugnant, something hated. (Ps. 97:10; Rom. 12:9) This is paralleled by a love of righteousness that causes the repentant Christian to determine firmly to hold to a righteous course thenceforth. Without both this hatred of bad and love of righteousness there would be no real force to our repentance, no following through with what the apostle Paul called “works that befit repentance.” (Acts 26:20)
King Rehoboam’s case illustrates this. After first humbling himself under God’s anger, he turned back to doing bad. Why? Because “he had not firmly established his heart to search for Jehovah.”—2 Chron. 12:12-14.