Repent
Most of us don’t like to admit it when we’re wrong. Someone has said that the hardest three words to say are: “I am sorry,” or “I was wrong.”
But when we repent, it means we change our minds and admit that we were wrong about several important matters. For example, we change our minds about God and admit that we need Him. We also change our minds about our sin, realizing that it’s not only destructive in our own lives, and in our families, but it also offends a holy and righteous God. We change our minds (and agree with God) about these things.
In the New Testament, the word for sin literally means “to miss the mark.” It’s like playing a game of darts and not being able to hit the center of the dartboard. Even if we get lucky and hit the bull’s-eye occasionally, we cannot do it 100% of the time. It’s impossible—just like it’s impossible for us to be good enough to meet God’s standard of perfection. The Bible tells us that if we miss the bull’s-eye just once, it’s like never hitting it at all (James 2:10).
Our sin, then, is what separates us from God—because He’s perfect and we’re not. When we repent, we admit that we’ve been wrong and we need to change directions—and that we cannot do it without God’s help.
Humbling, you say? Yes, of course! In fact, that’s precisely the point.
But we’re not finished yet. The Bible has “good news” for us . . .