August 31 Petition Mission

“Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin’?” (Prov 20:9). No one, of course. But millions can give testimony that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed them from all unrighteousness!

Merely feeling sorry will not do. There is a great difference between remorse and repentance. One regrets the fruit of the sin and bemoans its unpleasant consequences; the other examines the root of the sin and longs for it to be torn from the heart.

Augustus Strong notes: “The confession ‘I have sinned’ is made by hardened Pharaoh (Ex 9:27), double-minded Balaam (Num 22:34), remorseful Achan (Josh 7:20), insincere King Saul (1 Sam 15:24), and despairing Judas (Mt 27:4); but in none of these cases was there true repentance.” And yet, when I begin to know the path to real forgiveness in my own life—the chains it releases, the hurts it heals—that’s when I long for others to make the difficult but blessed journey into God’s sweet light, too.