{"id":68852,"date":"2024-07-16T17:23:26","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T22:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=68852"},"modified":"2024-07-16T17:23:26","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T22:23:26","slug":"how-sorry-do-you-have-to-be-to-repent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-sorry-do-you-have-to-be-to-repent\/","title":{"rendered":"How sorry do you have to be to repent?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>How sorry do you have to be for your sins to repent? I am sorry, but I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m sad enough or something because I&#8217;m not in tears over my sins, even though I want to be. I worry about my salvation every day. It&#8217;s been over ten years, and I&#8217;m miserable. I have asked for forgiveness and Jesus to save me so many times that I don&#8217;t want to anymore. I sound like a broken record, and I don&#8217;t even take myself seriously anymore. What do I do? How do I repent and be saved once and for all?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>Where do you find in the Bible that feelings indicate repentance or salvation? Being sorry leads to repentance (II Corinthians 7:9-11). It <strong>isn&#8217;t <\/strong>repentance. It doesn&#8217;t <strong>cause<\/strong> repentance. However, it is a motivator that leads a person to change. Repentance is a change in your behavior and how you view sin&#8217;s acceptability. How much sorrow is needed? Enough to motivate you to change.<\/p>\n<p>Right now, you sit there, wanting God to force you to change. It doesn&#8217;t work that way. You are responsible for your decisions. You have to decide what you will do. God instructs us on how to behave properly. He tells us what we need to do to receive salvation (see\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-to-become-a-christian\/\">How to Become a Christian<\/a>). But the choice is yours to make. You can&#8217;t be saved on your terms.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: How sorry do you have to be for your sins to repent? I am sorry, but I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m sad enough or something because I&#8217;m not in tears over my sins, even though I want to be. I worry about my salvation every day. It&#8217;s been over ten years, and I&#8217;m miserable. I&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[546,50,391],"class_list":["post-68852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-feelings","tag-repentance","tag-sorrow"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":54747,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-repentance-is-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":68852,"position":0},"title":"What Repentance Is Not","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Joe R. Price via\u00a0The Spirit's Sword, 2009 The verb translated \"repent\" in the New Testament (metanoeo) literally means \"to perceive afterward\"; so repent means \"to change one's mind or purpose\" (Thayer). God commands all men everywhere to repent of their sins (Acts 17:30). That is, God commands a change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36017,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-cant-i-feel-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":68852,"position":1},"title":"Why can&#8217;t I feel repentance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am in a similar situation as the man who asked you \"How do I repent of adultery when I don't feel sorry for doing it?\" After reading your response, I am still confused about what to do. According to you, I feel sorrow but not repentance. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":25137,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-know-my-repentance-is-genuine\/","url_meta":{"origin":68852,"position":2},"title":"How do I know my repentance is genuine?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have doubts about repentance. I suffer from depression. At times I feel really sad, at times I feel really angry, but at times I feel nothing -- not sad, not happy or angry, just, an empty room. So I hope that what I'm going to tell you is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":52519,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/im-not-sure-if-my-thoughts-are-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":68852,"position":3},"title":"I&#8217;m not sure if my thoughts are sin","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I saw a website that makes going to heaven seem really difficult. I have religious OCD and I get blasphemous thoughts constantly and repent all day long. Some of the thoughts feel like I want them. What should I do? If I'm not sure if my thoughts are really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":66252,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/repent-of-your-sins\/","url_meta":{"origin":68852,"position":4},"title":"Repent of Your Sins","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 31, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Nana Yaw Aidoo via The Gospel Preceptor, Vol. 7, No. 2, February 2024 Over and over again, the New Testament emphasizes the necessity of repentance in the salvation of humans. The first preacher in the New Testament is John the Baptizer. We are told that he was sent to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":94512,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-you-repent-before-being-forgiven\/","url_meta":{"origin":68852,"position":5},"title":"How can you repent before being forgiven?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 12, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings! I've been struggling to understand repentance. I know it's commonly taught that we must repent of all sin before we can be saved. However, as I read Romans and some of Paul's other writings, I find that Paul talks about being made free from sin, putting to death\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68852\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}