When we repent of our sins, we are acknowledging our own humility and admitting that we want to change our ways. This is the attitude that God wants us to have, as it shows that we are willing to learn from our mistakes and grow as people. Repentance is usually associated with sinful behaviours that are harmful to ourselves or others, such as lust, greed, and pride. These sins make us anxious and stressed, and take us away from our faith. God's design for us is to find our all in Him, so that when we have found Him, we are at peace. He is coming as the God who speaks, and His word will shake the earth.Since God upholds everything by His powerful word, His will is accomplished in our lives through that same word. It's not always the outward action that we focus on, but the struggle is in the mind, the thoughts, and then the will. The struggle is how we dwell on these thoughts and how we understand the nature or power of sin and our natural hardness of heart. When we repent, we begin to understand more of God's power that is at work in the inner man from the new birth. When we learn to understand the nature of that power, we become very desirous of the object of that power. In other words, when we repent and turn to God, we begin to understand the true nature of His power and our own hearts, and we desire to be closer to Him as a result.But the truth is that Jesus is the only one who can give us the purity we need. He earned it through His death and resurrection. Our salvation is provided for us as an inheritance from God. Our cleansing can only come from Jesus' work on the cross. If repentance was only about changing our behavior, we could have a book that listed all the bad things we need to stop doing, and all the good things we need to start doing. We wouldn't need to pray, or learn about religious doctrine, or rely on God's promises. We would just follow the right behavior.The work of Christ on our behalf is finished; He sits at the right hand of God in heaven, declaring us not guilty by His cleansing. He is our only High Priest. When we repent, that act of repenting is His gracious gift to us. The transformation of the heart is His reminder that we can't clean the latrine by self washing. When Christ causes us to repent, we become very familiar with grace. The repentance that God offers is absolutely free, without human effort, and completely effective. In other words, when we repent and God forgives us, it's not because we did anything to deserve it or because we worked hard for it. It's simply because God is gracious and wants to forgive us. And when we experience that forgiveness, it should remind us that we can't save ourselves; we need God's help every step of the way.When we learn to repent, we learn to express remorse for our sins. We need to identify and address the underlying attitudes of the heart that give rise to sinful behavior. If we focus only on external behavior, we will only be able to maintain a superficial level of repentance. True repentance requires that we fix our eyes on Christ and His Word, and develop a love for Him that manifests itself in a desire to conform our lives to His will.The Holy Spirit will inspire us with new desires to experience our Father's unfailing love, faithfulness, and forgiveness. We will become more aware of God's attributes, so that we see Christ as the embodiment of God's glory.