A man confided to his pastor, “Ya’ know, I been workin’ fer the lumber yard fer a long time now. I been stealin’ wood on a mighty regular basis. Why, over the years, I musta’ stole more than twenty thousand dollars’ worth a’ lumber. After hearin’ what ya’ preached this mornin’ about stealin’, I’m sorry for my sin, and I wanna make it right.”

“Well,” said the pastor, “You did the right thing by coming to me. I know that you’re sorry for stealing, but are you willing to make restitution?”

The man replied, “I don’t rightly know what that is, but if you got the plans, I got the lumber.”

Many of us have done things that we say we are sorry for, but are we really? Sometimes people who are serving time for a crime they have committed get something known as “jailhouse religion.” They’re not really sorry for what they’ve done wrong. They are sorry that they got caught. Jesus preached about repentance. Repentance has a three-fold meaning. First, we must realize that we have sinned. Then, we must be sorry for committing the sin. We must then, with the Lord’s help, turn from that sin. We should search our own heart for any actions, words or thoughts we need to repent of.

Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.