What is 'true repentance'?

Most of us are familiar with the term repentance and with its meaning. There are many explanations for the term repentance. But I believe that ‘true repentance’ is something much more than repentance and of course there is difference between both of them.

The common definitions or what we normally meant by repentance is a decision made by a person not to sin again and trying the best to escape from that sin. Some believe it as being guilty and sad for the sins committed and some other think it as washing the sins with the blood of Jesus or word of God. There are also people who believe it as confessing the sin committed to God or to an elder in the church and to ask him to pray for you. For another, it is asking apology to God or human being to whom which we committed the sin. By dictionary it can be also defined as feeling remorse, contrition, or self-reproach for what one has done or failed to do; be contrite.

All these are true. But still there is a thing much great than all these, which God expect from us on repenting. It can be also mentioned as a fruit of repentance, for it is a result of repentance. A repentance which produces this fruit is called true repentance. Then ‘what is true repentance?’

According to me, ‘true repentance for a sin is an act of human being to turn away from that sin and to come back to Jesus Christ by stop committing that sin again.’ Decisions, confessions, cleansing and all are just a part. It can again lead that person to sin. This true repentance is not just a decision not to sin, but it is an act in which we do not commit that sin again and this is what God expect from us on repenting. Otherwise an option for committing sins will be always remain with solutions as confessing sins, deciding again and also cleansing again with the blood of Jesus and so on. An inner meaning of this true repentance is that, if we committed the sin for which we repented once, it cannot be called as a true repentance.

In these days people always fail to make true repentance. In bible we can see this nature in the life of people who repented. We can see David repented for his sin of committing adultery with Bathsheba and he never committed such a sin again. In the story of parable of lost son, the son repented for leaving his father and for leading a immoral life and after his repentance, he never went back again to that sins. Zacchaeus repented for his sin of collecting more money from taxes and he never committed the sin again. The woman who was caught on committing adultery repented and never went to commit the sin again. Apostle Paul repented for persecuting the church and he never went back to persecute the church again.

We can see all these people repented not just by mere decisions or by washing them with the blood of Jesus and confessing their sins. Decisions are necessary to perform an act and cleansing with the blood of Jesus and the confession of sins are also good. But beyond all these, the act is important, which is not to go to commit the sin again.

You should also aware of the reason for which such repentance is very important. It is because, in God whom there is no sin and no darkness is Holy and Holy. Sin is very bad and ugly in the eyes of this Holy God. Man who lives in this sinful world may he okay with sins. But God can never tolerate sins and he cannot left the sins so simple and unnoticed.

By this answer some of you may think about the impossibility to stop committing sins without the help of God. I will try my best to provide answer for that question in some of the next posts. May God bless all of you with this answer.

What do you have to say about ‘Luck’?

This is an interesting question and I also studied and discovered the answer of this question earlier. But thank you for asking this question again so that I can make it in the form an answer so that many can read and understand it. I do believe that my answer for this question is very interesting. Understanding and accepting the answer of this question will surely help all readers to remove a great misbelieve. So read on with the heart to know its answer.

All human beings are familiar with the term called luck. People of different religion, caste, tribe, belief, ethnicity and country believe in the term called luck. But according to me, Luck is something that does not exist for real or it is a word used by human being to replace the presence of something else, which they do not understand. Beyond that if we study and understand more about luck, we can see and realize that luck is a non-beneficial thing for human being which affects human beings only in bad ways. I know it is difficult to grasp and to accept my opinion in this moment, but I’ll make it clear for you.

First of all consider an example in which I told you to take a ball from the box which contains 5 black and 5 white balls, by keeping your eyes closed. Can you predict the color of that ball which you are about to take? The truth is you cannot predict it because there are same numbers of white and black balls in the box and the ball you are going to take can be white or black. And what about the case if I tell that you are lucky if you get the white ball. And in this case can you predict the color of that ball which you are about to take? The truth is you cannot predict it because, still there are same number of white and black balls in the box and the ball you are going to take can be white or black. But when people on taking a ball found that it is white, they call themselves they are lucky and the fact is that there is nothing which luck have to do with getting a specified ball you expect.

Mathematicians know this very well when they studied about this and they named and defined it completely in terms of probability, more clearly statistical probability. So is luck another name for statistical probability? Anyway that is true for an extent because many times human beings call the end result of statistical probability as luck. Now we can consider it with some real life situation so that you can understand the misunderstandings caused by the term called luck.

Consider the case of an examination and here I would like to share an incident with my sister which once helped me to study more about this term luck. It was before her medical entrance examination she shared to me that “It is possible to get a top rank in entrance examination only with luck.” And here I would like to know your opinion about that. Anyway whatever the opinion may be, the fact is, getting a top rank in entrance or any other examination is not a matter of luck, but it is a matter of hard working and through study.

There are lots of students who do not study hard and work hard for their examinations by believing in the mythological term called luck. Once I am also a victim of that wrong doctrine. If you attend an entrance or any other examination without studying, it was just like taking a ball from the box, which means you may pass or may not pass in the examination and it depends on the statistical probability of your answers. But if you need good marks and need to reach in the top rank, you should have to study and work hard for sure.

Another place in which people commonly use luck is at the time when they escape from some accident. To study a case we can take the situation of vehicle accident. Suppose you are driving a car and a truck is coming from the opposite direction without proper control. What will you do? Do you remain the same by telling yourself that it is possible to escape from an accident only by luck or do you try to move the car in some possible ways so that you can escape from it. Surely you will try to escape your car by applying proper acceleration, break and control or at least you will try to get out of the car to move to some side of the road. In this situation, probability of escaping from the accident is more if we try to escape our car from hitting the truck. Otherwise if we remain the same, you can or can not be hit by the truck which is again a matter of statistical probability like taking a ball from the box. So what is the role of luck in this situation? You know very well that it is your effort that made you escape from the accident and waiting for luck only help you to be in more danger.

There are many other similar cases like this. The case of taking lottery is another example. If you go and take some lottery from somewhere, it can or cannot be won. If you take the lottery by careful planning the chance to win the lottery is more. At least if you take the same lottery number always, you have more chance to win that lottery than taking different numbers each time. It is not luck that makes investors succeeds in stock exchange, but it is careful studying and proper planning that helps them succeed. It is not luck that makes business people succeed in business, but it is faithfulness, customer satisfaction and hard work is that which help them succeed. It is not luck that heals the disease of patient, but it is good treatment and proper intake of medicines that helps them to be healed. People who work in dangerous places and spacemen who go to space are still alive due to their carefulness in doing each thing. It is not luck that makes God answers your prayer, but it is strong and powerful prayer of faith made God answer your prayer and to bless you. Similarly you can replace luck from all other cases in your life.

What is the benefit by carrying this unresisting term called luck? Actually there is no benefit and all there is only detriment. Luck is a main term which people use in these days to be lazy by escaping from their responsibilities. Its end result is that it makes the unfruitful, unsatisfied and it destroys a hope of good future. Luck makes students to wait to pass examination without hardworking, stock investors to invest without careful planning, businessman to do business without faithfulness and customer satisfaction. It makes people to depend proper treatment and proper medicine intake.

One another thing which I noticed is that not all lucky people are lucky in all areas and they are also not lucky in same area repeatedly on other attempts. This again confirms that luck is just statistical probability. Students who passed examination by luck are not passing always in examinations by luck. A person called lucky by winning a lottery is not lucky in his life, business, relations, diseases, studies and so on. It always vary and what he get is just the result of his hard work and nothing else.

Hope you understand the inexistence of luck clearly by this answer. Believe in hard work and do not waste time by things like luck in life. But there is something which you need to understand clearly. It is the difference between God’s involvements in case of blessings, protection, success etc. and its difference from luck. I’ll answer it in the next question. God bless all of you with this answer.