Repentance is misunderstood. Some think of it as a time of deep sorrow for sin and long crying. Sorrow and tears may be a part of repentance but one may shed buckets of tears and never repent. To repent is to make an about-face. Repentance is a change of direction…a change of mind about sin and about the Saviour.

Many repent during difficult times or after experiencing some great loss, but others turn to Christ because He has been so good to them. “The goodness of God” leads them to repentance.

And God has been good to us all.

The eloquent DeWitt Talmage wrote: “It is high time you began to thank God for present blessing. Thank Him for your children, happy, buoyant, and bounding. Praise Him for fresh, cool water, bubbling from the rock, leaping in the cascade, soaring in the mist, falling in the shower, dashing against the rock, and clapping its hands in the tempest. Love Him for the grass that cushions the earth, and the clouds that curtain the sky, and the foliage that waves in the forest. Thank Him for the Bible to read, and a cross to gaze upon, and a Saviour to deliver.”

Talmage had a way with words. But your silent song of thanksgiving rising to God from a grateful heart may outdo the great orator and preacher if you give thought to all of God’s wondrous blessings.

Has God been good to you?

Isn’t it time you became serious about repentance?