It's a wonderful thing to go to the altar and ask the Lord to forgive us of our sins. We confess the sin, ask forgiveness, and renounce that sin forever. Perhaps the Lord will instruct us on restitution, or maybe He'll tell us to confess to a person we've sinned against. Many things come out of such times as these. Hopefully you pastors allow times in your services for your people to do this, though it can be done anytime.

While at the altar we should have engaged in repentance. We decided, then and there, that we were turning from the sin and to righteousness. Confession without repentance isn't enough. God wants to see us change, and that repentance decision should be part of our experience. Then comes Monday morning.

We have to go back out into the world and decide all over again to follow Jesus. Here is where our repentance must be proven on the field of battle known as life. Did we really repent? Now we'll find out.

There are many techniques to spiritual warfare and personal victory, and hopefully the pastors and teachers are getting these out to the people. But the goal is to prove our repentance by deciding correctly over and over. If we blow it, we must not despair, but we must go through the confession/repentance process again until we move from victory to victory! Praise God, the Holy Spirit helps us in our human weaknesses. Our part is to never make peace with those weaknesses, but to battle them relentlessly in His strength.

-- Anonymous, March 05, 2002