"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation." 2 Corinthians 7:10Conviction of sin is best portrayed in the words -"My sins, my sins, my Saviour,How sad on Thee they fall."Conviction of sin is one of the rarest things that ever strikes a man. It is the threshold of an understanding of God. Jesus Christ said that when the Holy Spirit came He would convict of sin, and when the Holy Spirit rouses a man's conscience and brings him into the presence of God, it is not his relationship with men that bothers him, but his relationship with God - "against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight." The marvels of conviction of sin, forgiveness, and holiness are so interwoven that it is only the forgiven man who is the holy man, he proves he is forgiven by being the opposite to what he was, by God's grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I have sinned. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself.The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance crashing into a man's respectable goodness; then the Holy Ghost, Who produces these agonies, begins the formation of the Son of God in the life. The new life will manifest itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness, never the other way about. The bedrock of Christianity is repentance. Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God. The old Puritans used to pray for "the gift of tears." If ever you cease to know the virtue of repentance, you are in darkness. Examine yourself and see if you have forgotten how to be sorry.
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
hi, when i realized that i was a sinner and in need of a saviour, i was led in the sinners prayer which included repentance from sin...after a year of two battling sin in my life i came to the realization that Jesus had already conquered sin and i was bringing sin into my life my fighting a battle the Lord already won.i then repented of being in control of my life and turned it completely over to Christ and reckoning myself to be dead and dead to sin. i then started to walk in the Spirit and as the bible tells us that those who walk in the Spirit no longer fufills the lusts of the flesh.jimp still not perfect but dead.
Praise the Lord!Both the posts from Greg and Jimp were right on target for me. I too took some years to realise that it's not enough to feel sorry, it's not enough to pray hard and long, it's not enough to read the word, it's not enough to fast but what is required from you is to turn away from sin period. As Tozer would say, "anything less than that is a compromise and it leaves men bewildered, half-saved and in the dark". For years I felt sorry and tried "spiritual" means, but conviction is deeper than sorrow and stronger than the human will. Conviction gives you the power to make a decision once and for all. It allows you to know the truth of your motives, stop lying to yourself, to people and most importantly to God.Jimm
_________________James Gabriel Gondai Dziya
