One condition of the world before the Lord comes again is that people “… repented not to give (God) glory.” We live in a world that seems to be defiant, rebellious and refuses to repent.

Repentance is a change of mind or what we believe, a change of heart or what we love and a change of our will or what we do. Most of humanity is not interested in being under authority and living by absolute morality.

We repent, not because of how bad man is but because of how good God is. We do not see ourselves as bad, because in our judgment we are better than most. We feel that because everyone else is doing it, we are good. Another problem is we see ourselves as what we want to be not what we really are. Romans 2:4 says, “…despises thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” The goodness of God is to have our best interests in mind. His forbearance is to put off His wrath, giving us time to repent. His longsuffering is to have self-restraint from revenge. It is not until we realize our sins as being against God’s goodness that we see our need of repentance.

All humans are born with an innate knowledge of right and wrong, which is called a conscience. The Lord will use this conviction to bring us to repentance. However, I Timothy 4:2 states that we can sear our conscience. We get the English word cauterize from the word sear. J.A. Watson says, “Just as scar tissue loses feeling because of nerve damage, man has no spiritual feelings because sin has cauterized him.”

Repentance is not changing ourselves. If we could do that, we would have already. It is when we confess the mess we are in, want a way out and turn from our guilt, shame and failures to God’s mercy. This allows Him, as our creator, to change us through His strength. He is also our sustainer who cares for and encourages us. As our Savior, He will forgive and restore us to a relationship with Him.

Conviction forces us to make the choice whether to humble ourselves under God’s authority or stand against it.

STEVE CONWELL, pastor of Maranatha Baptist Church, is heard mornings on WFLO and WVHL in “A Thought for Today.” His email address is SteveConwell@outlook.com.