People may feel grieved about loss of friendship, property, feel shame, disgrace, and even guilt, but if the behavior doesn't change, it is unproductive.

Worldly sorrow is superficial and unproductive, while godly sorrow yields not only repentance, but also a bumper crop of the fruits of God's Holy Spirit.

Jesus anticipated what was coming on the nation, prepared for it as well as He could, and persevered through it along with the rest of His fellow citizens.

True repentance involves pain, particularly emotional pain. To repent is wrenching to the psyche. It really hurts because it is difficult to do.

We recognize our need to change when we see, not necessarily how we are, but how we compare to and fall woefully short of the perfect righteousness of God.

When we repent, we turn off the path that leads to destruction and onto the narrow path—through the strait gate—that leads to life in the Kingdom of God.

Repentance is a condition for baptism, and ultimately of conversion and salvation. It is also a lifelong process—one never stops needing to repent.

Pain is not something we normally consider positive, nor is guilt. However, guilt is like pain in that it is a spiritual warning signal to change course!

The contrite or brokenhearted person finds special favor with God, and a humble or contrite spirit is indeed a precursor to forgiveness and spiritual healing.

Nothing happens in our lives (including repentance) until God initiates it. A change of heart, by God's Holy Spirit, results in a total change of direction.

Blessedness and mourning seem contradictory, but obviously Jesus saw spiritual benefits to sorrow. True, godly mourning gets high marks from God.

People often give up when tragedy or adversity strikes. We all make mistakes. But God does not want His people to think that failure is the end of the road.

Matthew's encapsulation of the Beatitudes, the essence of Jesus Christ's teaching, contains the foundation of His teaching through the entirety of His ministry.

We accept most of our opinions, prejudices, and beliefs unconsciously. We must scrutinize our own beliefs through the principles of God's Holy Scriptures.

Worldly sorrow leads to death while godly sorrow leads to repentance and life. After godly repentance, sorrow is swallowed up in profound joy.

We all have low days, but when our despondency turns to self-pity, we have a problem. 'Woe is me' can hamper our growth because it is self-centeredness.

Repentance is far more than feeling guilt or apologizing but instead is a spirit-empowered reorientation of heart, mind, and behavior.

Personified Jerusalem, whom God depicts as a grieving widow, blames others for her troubles while overlooking her own sins as the real cause of her sorrow.

The prospect of death makes one more mature and self-aware, illuminating the meaning of Ecclesiastes 7:2-4 that it is better to go to the house of mourning.

We must be able to separate genuine guilt, which is the spiritual equivalent of pain, from false guilt when we call into question God's forgiveness.

We may feel sorry or even guilty when we sin, but have we actually repented? The Scriptures show that true repentance produces these seven, distinct fruits.

Honoring our free choice and understanding our weaknesses, God alters time and chance for us, using our mistakes as tools to enhance our godly character.

Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 highlight the Bible's attitude toward death, particularly its insistence that we allow the reality of death to change our approach to life.

In Lamentations 3, the narrator finally convinces Lady Jerusalem that her own sins have caused her necessary punishment and affliction by God.

Jesus' 28 'missing' years were spent maturing, studying, and gaining life experience to equip Him as a high priest who could relate to human struggles.

We must be very careful how we examine ourselves. Taking the Passover in an unworthy manner can result in serious physical or spiritual hazards.

The 'people of the lie' do not believe they have any major defects and, consequently, do not have any need to examine themselves, let alone change.