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That it may please thee to give us true repentance; to forgive us all our sins, negligences, and ignorances; and to endue us with the grace of thy Holy Spirit to amend our lives according to thy holy Word, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord.  That it may please thee to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers, and to turn their hearts, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. 

Acts 11:18  When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

Ephesians 4:14-16   No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are easy prey for predators. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.

Ephesians 4:20(b)-24  You learned Christ! My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything—and I do mean everything—connected with that old way of life has to go. It’s rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life—a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. 
Throughout the Bible we are called to “repent”, to give up our way of being our own god and to turn toward Jesus, following Him. Repentance however, as well as everything God does is a gift. It is a gift from God for us to receive, or if you will, an opportunity given to us through Jesus Christ to act upon. We repent so that God may make us new people as we turn our ways toward Him. The ancient prayer tells us to ask for God’s gift of “true repentance” so that God can begin to transform us. It is up to us to receive the gift and act on it.
So what does “true repentance” look like ? How does it work in our lives ? I have found that to repent means more than just feeling bad about the things we do against God. Repentance has some characteristics. First comes Recognition, where we come to the realization that we are far from God’s ideal of who we were made to be and how to live. If you have a conscience (also a gift from God) , knowing God’s truth more often than not should lead to Remorse, the “I am sorry, God”  prayer .

2 Kings 22: 8-12
So, now we have made a good start, but for repentance to be complete, Restitution must be made, and again that has been provided by the Cross of Jesus. Colossians 1:14, and if any other form of restitution is required, like making amends and apologies to others, God can work wonders. Once we get those things going, reformation of our old ways needs to start, which God promises to do in our lives. Romans 12:1-2. Finally, we are called to live with Resolution, to be resolved to accepting all these gifts and staying on the path He is leading us. As the prayer above asks, this “grace…to amend our lives” is a gift as well. These “Repentance” gifts of Recognition, Remorse, Restitution, Reformation and Resolution have helped me define when I am serious about my prayers for forgiveness and when I’m not. They can be found throughout Scripture in different terms and with plenty of examples.

Finally, when you realize you have been forgiven, when you live out all these gifts of repentance, that last part about praying that God forgives those who hurt us becomes a little easier. For when you ask God to forgive them, you are letting go of those pains and letting God deal with it.  Best of all, when God turns the hearts of our enemies to Him, just as He did ours, this thing called Peace breaks out and spreads everywhere, all at once, and as Psalm 23 promises, “goodness and mercy will follow us” all the days of our lives.

Peace Phil Parsons

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From Rodger:

I don’t believe in coincidences.  Never have… never will.  So, I don’t believe it’s just a coincidence that I preached on the parable of the prodigal son from Luke chapter 15 this morning.  Long story short, I didn’t ask why forgiveness is so powerful and redemptive; we all do (or should) know that.  That’s the easy part.  The larger question I asked is WHY?  Why is forgiveness so astonishing?  And the only answer I can come up with is two fold:  First, apart from God, it cannot – and will not ever – exist.  And secondly, even granting # 1 above, maybe it never ceases to astonish us because it is so rare anymore in our world.

Like it or don’t, we live in a culture where forgiveness is passe’ and a sign of weakness.  Hit ’em back 5 times harder than they hit you.  “WE WANT JUSTICE!”  (Which really means “WE WANT REVENGE!”)  Throw forgiveness into this mix and  – at best – you will be warned that “you are giving up the high ground.”

Yep, you are.  And that’s exactly what we are about to remember Jesus doing for us in a little more than a week.

I threw this into the mix for good measure:  This is what forgiveness looks like: