Being a parent to two children has taught me so much about myself and my relationship with God. The most recent lesson came about a week ago. The lesson came in the midst of a fairly typical episode in our home when one of my children "misbehaved" and received a consequence. A few minutes later the child, who shall remain nameless, came to me and said they were sorry. I accepted their apology and then they preceded to ask if their privilege could be restored to which I replied, "No". They were dumbfounded - "what do you mean, I said I was sorry!" Of course, then we had a conversation about how apology doesn't necessarily eliminate consequence. That wasn't well received to say the least.
What became very apparent throughout this experience was that my child's expression of sorrow was driven by a desire to have their pain stop. They weren't truly repentant for their actions. There was no remorse over the sin that had been committed, there was simply sadness because what they wanted had been taken away.
I'm afraid we are sometimes guilty of approaching God in the same way. We come to Him saying we are "sorry" for a particular sin motivated by nothing more than a desire for our pain to stop. There is no doubt we can come to God confessing our sin and He will forgive us (I John 1:9), however, our confession must carry with it an attitude of repentance (Proverbs 28:13). Our sorrow, our confession, our forsaking of sin must be driven by a brokenness and an acknowledgement that we have sinned against God and damaged our relationship with Him. Coming to God in this way may or may not relieve whatever consequences we are experiencing but one thing is sure - we will be forgiven and fellowship will be restored.
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