Repentance is the most powerful step toward receiving God’s grace. God does not need our repentance in order to forgive us, nor does He want to belittle us.
His only motivation is to bless us richly.
Whether we deserve it or not is irrelevant - God’s love knows no bounds.
In the experience described earlier, it became clear that God wanted to grant me His grace.
He wanted to place His love into my heart.
But I was not yet open and ready for it.
I believed I was a loving person because I often tried to be loving and not hurt others.
However, an inner preparation was needed in order to receive this grace. It came through reflecting on my own lack of love in many situations.
Then came the decisive step: I had to accept what God was showing me.
Yes, it’s true - I am often unloving!
Only by accepting this did the sadness over my lack of love arise - the feeling of repentance.
Repentance is a completely natural feeling that arises when we realize we have done something wrong. Once we allow it to reach our heart - and that is the most important condition - our heart becomes sorrowful.
This sadness of an open, sincere heart is repentance.
And it is precisely this kind of heart that God needs in order to give us His grace.
The steps are as follows:
- Allow painful self-realization
- Accept the reality that is shown
- Allow the feeling of repentance
- Receive the grace
In the end, one could say that it is a reason to rejoice when something leads us to repentance. It is a sign that a great gift is waiting for us.
It only takes a small step on our part to receive it.