sin remorse repentance

Sin is the sick insidious nature to cause harm stemming from harm done! It began in the garden and continues today. It has been given many titles and in some cases been swept under the carpet to be ignored or has been outright embraced as “good”. Sin includes what we do and know we shouldn't, what we don't do, but know we should and what we think and our motivations! Sin is something that we love to hate! Yet, if we hated it enough, then we would do something about it! Elijah House talks about absolutely hating your sin before you'll even consider letting go of it! Sin enters life in the womb, because the baby feels the emotions around it! I can feel the mothers intentions whether good or bad! And if bad, it makes a judgement, and an inner vow. Ever wondered how it is possible for a child to kill a cat or dog, one that's been the family pet? Look back into their heart as that tiny helpless baby and ask the question of what was going on at the time? What is it that could cause such a small being to feel, experience and vent so much rage and anger? In the scriptures, David talks about sin from as far back as the womb, yet humans being fearfully and wonderfully made!
 
To get rid of sin, one needs to look at the patterns or fruit! What sin are you constantly committing, that you wrestle with constantly and constantly find yourself doing over and over again. You repent of it, then an hour find yourself doing it again? Why is that? Trace back... A man is married, to his third wife and is having affair number 50... is it really “commitment issues”? Or is there something else going on? A woman, at work in a retail shop, could be any shop. She opens the cash register and is tempted to take some or all of the money. She doesn't need it! Her job pays her enough to cover her bills, but that little voice in her head says that she just has to have it! What's going on?
 
It's not enough to slap a band-aid on the wound. Especially when the wound is a festering sore that simply refuses to heal! What can be done? Well, nothing until you really hate what you do!
 
There's remorse and there is repentance! What's the difference? Remorse says “I'm sad because I got caught and I don't want to loose whatever I shouldn't have! And oh, woe is me, my reputation is ruined, because someone else was sticking their nose where it doesn't belong!” Repentance says “I'm relieved because I got caught, I'm going to give back what I shouldn't have and I'm sad about the pain and loss I caused to everyone around me! And I'm not going to do this again! I'm done, it's finished!”
 
How you answered the question of how you felt when you got caught is exactly how you will gauge if you will find yourself doing it again in an hour or not!
 
Remorse often gets a band-aid slapped over a gaping great wound that is still full of muck and gunk, that often has a putrid stink, where as repentance takes the wound to a doctor to be cleaned out, stitched up and properly dressed to cause healing to occur!
 
As part of repentance, you need to pull down the structures that hold you in the pattern of perpetual sin! The longer you remain in your sin (whatever it may be) the more you will build a stronghold to keep you in that sin! Repentance is like setting fire to, and destroying that stronghold!
 
During a ministry time I had a picture of a person stuck in a tower and Jesus outside the tower with a sledge hammer, waiting for permission to bust in and destroy the stronghold! It's an awesome sight to see a stronghold get destroyed! Because that is where people get set free! But did you notice that Jesus, sledge hammer in hand, was WAITING!!! He waits for you to tell Him you're done!
 
Jesus more than understands the power, weight, guilt and shame associated with sin. He held it all, remember? He took it so we didn't have to. Yet we are still more than happy to wallow in our shit! What's with that? Oh, that's right, it's called denial! We deny to ourselves that it's bad! We tell ourselves that it isn't as bad as it looks, or as it smells!
 
I recently witnessed a person who did something, then not thirty seconds later she said she had done nothing! I was in shock about how strong her denial was! Should I have been? Probably not! My own denial can be that strong sometimes!
 
What are we going to do about it? Remorse? Repentance?