followHIM - What is true repentance? • follow HIM Favorites • Jan. 23 - Jan. 29

Episode Date: January 19, 2023

Hank Smith and John Bytheway answer a question from this week's Come, Follow Me study.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Hello, my friends. Welcome to another week of Follow Him Favorites. We take a small portion of each week's Come Follow Me lesson and talk about it for our Follow Him Favorite. John, Follow Him Favorites this week is what is true repentance? John the Baptist comes crying repentance. Jesus picks up right there, crying repentance for the kingdom of God is at hand. We use this word repent all the time. What would you say is true repentance? That is such a good question because in one of my classes, Hank, I'll put up on a PowerPoint, just the word repent and say, what's your first reaction? Because it almost sounds like a scolding repent type of a thing. Like a negative term. Yeah, like a harsh type

of a thing, but it's so positive. When you look in the Bible dictionary for the definition of repentance, I think it's the second paragraph says a fresh view about God, about oneself and about the world. Now listen to that, how positive that is. It's a new way of looking at everything, yourself, God, the world. And I think one of the synonyms for repent is turn, isn't it, Hank? It's like, you're going this direction, turn, return, repent. We see those words together sometimes. Yeah. There's a quote right out of this week's Come Follow Me manual that says, Luke quoted an ancient prophecy of Isaiah that described the effect the Savior's coming would have. Quote, every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be brought low

and the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways shall be made smooth. This is a message for all of us, the manual says, including those who think they cannot change. If something as permanent as a mountain can be flattened, then surely the Lord can help us straighten our own crooked paths. So I think the message this week is true repentance is believing that you can change. Part of it is believing that the Lord can make this happen for you. When it feels like, man, I just keep falling into the same old patterns of behavior that caused my life so many problems.

You go to the Lord and say something to the effect of, I know you can do this. Please help me make these changes. And then we see it line upon line. If you're going to move a mountain, it'll probably happen shovel full by shovel full, but it will happen. If mountains can be made low, then yes, you can be changed. And I'm glad you say it that way, because I think an impression that we want to make sure people don't get that sometimes I had was that repentance was this one time thing. Like there was a list, faith and repent, then you get baptized as if you never repent again. And no, we're going to need to repent all of our lives.

I think in Doctrine and Covenants here, we heard someone use the phrase, repent relentlessly. It is a way of life to keep changing, keep growing, keep turning if you need to, keep getting on the covenant path and staying on it. So it's obvious that that's true because he has us come back to the sacrament table every week. So it's this ongoing process. Yeah. Part of repenting, maybe even for a particular sin might be repenting of that sin dozens or hundreds of times.

But eventually that will take effect. It will happen for you. Lord will help you overcome it, but keep coming back. Keep coming back to just decide you're never going to stop repenting. I think the Lord will see it all the way through. Well, we hope you'll join us next week for another Follow Him Favorites and join us for a full podcast. It's called Follow Him. You and join us for our full podcast. It's called Follow Him.

You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. This week, we're with Dr. Sean Hopkins. We think you'd love joining us for our full discussion. And then come back next week and join us for another Follow Him Favorites. Thank you.