Sunday mornings message from Amos Chapter 4 are words of judgment upon Israel for their lack of repentance.  As we apply the judgment of God to the New Covenant community we can understand the importance of repentance in the life of believers.  Below is a valuable tool to help us see the PATH TO TRUE REPENTANCE.

Enjoy the Read!!!

The Path of Repentance

by John Loftness

Step 1 – Pray

• Establish your dependence on God by praying for the Holy Spirit’s help in this process.

Step 2 – Identify the sin

• Define its practice in biblical terms.
• Define your heart’s motive for the sin in biblical terms.
• Define the lie—the false belief—that created this motive and its acts.

Step 3 – Embrace the Gospel

• Meditate on how your sin offends God. Cultivate sorrow.
• Meditate on the fact that God sent Jesus to die in your place to overcome the offense this sin created.
• Pray – Admit your sin to God and ask Him to forgive you and to account this sin to Jesus’ death on your behalf.

Step 4 – Take steps to stop

• Collect on paper what the Bible says about your sin, its consequences, your forgiveness in Christ, and the Spirit’s power at work in you to change. Memorize the most helpful passages.
• Purpose to change your thinking and your behavior.
• Purpose to change behavior that increases temptation:
• Places you go
• People with whom you interact
• Things you look at or listen to
• Words you say
• Confess your sin to those you’ve offended and seek their forgiveness. Make restitution if necessary.

Step 5 – Replace your sin with righteousness

• “Put on Christ.” If you’re a Christian, you are joined to Jesus Christ. His Spirit dwells within you. You can think and act as He does!
• Identify thoughts you can think or actions you can take to replace the lie with truth
• The sinful motive with a true motive for something else that pleases God
• Sinful behavior with righteous behavior

Step 6 – Seek fellowship as a means of grace

• If you haven’t already inform godly friends or a pastor of your sin and the process you are engaging in to change.
• Ask for their evaluation of the conclusions you’ve drawn, and adjust where needed.
• Make yourself accountable to walk along the specific path you’ve outlined above.

Step 7 – review

• Steps 1-5 daily.
• Step 6 for regular accountability