Repentance

One major hindrance to true repentance will be self-confidence. While self-confidence is an excellent trait to have for life in general, it can get in the way when it comes to repentance before God. True repentance calls for a renunciation of self-confidence and it will initiate a God-confidence; being confident in God to meet all your needs and fulfill all your desires, believing then, that His Way is the only way.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6

Our own way will lead us astray. Following our own ideas, desires and direction will lead us away from the Power needed to live a victorious life in Christ. Following our own way will put us in a place void of God's protection and blessing. We need God in order to make it. We need to follow His Way to stay with Him. Repentance is where that all starts.

And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day. And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Judges 10:15-16

If we follow the example of the Israelites in this scripture, we see three things which are necessary for repentance.

First, we see confession. Confession is self-explanatory. You must say, with your mouth, what you have done wrong. Confess your sin before God. Yes, He knows what you did - or didn't do, but you must confess it to Him. There is so much power in the spoken word. We will look at this another time.

Secondly, we see a turning away from sin. If you are truly repentant, you will make every effort to not continue in sin; especially the same sin. In most 12-step programs for addiction recovery, there is a common teaching that gives instruction on how to effect true change in your life.

Change people, places and things.

There may be certain people, places or things that you need to change in your life in order to bring about the change that you really desire in order to bring about and demonstrate true repentance.

Third, they chose to serve God. This is where you start new habits, make new friends, take up new responsibilities. All of this shows a placing of real confidence in God and discarding your own self-confidence.

The Bible says that we must repent and turn towards God (Acts 26:19-20). We must turn from our idols and serve God. (1 Thessalonians 1:8-9)