In order to bring people to repentance it is important to understand the true meaning of repentance.
Repentance is awarenessof:
- mental state in which people live at the moment: a way of life, hopelessness;
- meaning of Jesus Christ’s Sacrifice;
- the fact that Jesus has borne your sins and gave you His righteousness;
“He has taken my place. Now I have to bring righteousness to other people, become like Jesus on earth and continue His work “- summed up pastor Sunday.
Also you have to seeyourself as an ambassador of Christ, through whom God admonishes.
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20).
God has done a perfect job, He has taken away:
- Original sin and all sins we have committed.
- The sins of the present: we live in the flesh; therefore we are not insured from sin.
- Future sins, those we may do in future.
Having understood the meaning of repentance, we can begin to discuss how to bring people to repentance on daily basis?
- Build a relationship of trust through:
– good deeds;
– positive character traits: courage, activity, ability to listen, compassion, fascination, appreciation, positive attitude, etc.;
– announcing that you are a believer. - Try to see what problems people have and immediately offer a way to solve it
When talking to people it is important to feel the attitude of your interlocutor: you can invite them to your place (to a cafe) or to the church.
Also during conversationit is important:
- to focus the attention on the reality of life, the situation in the society or country;
- to talk about the indifference of the public to solving this problem;
- to remember a testimony on a similar topic;
- to set an emotional contact: truly empathize, encourage and comfort your companion;
- to let person know that it’s not you, but they must feel the need to repent;
- to ask person to pray a prayer of repentance and be reconciled to God;
- to leave your contacts – show you are interested to continue the dialogue and maintain the friendship.
How to bring a person to repentance, if you don’t have enough time:
- Use “shock” method. It will sober them up, “it will get him down to the ground” and trigger them to think about tomorrow.
- Put a person in an awkward situation, speaking about their attitude to sin and faith in God, focusing on the inadmissibility of the sins they have committed, which will never give any good results.
- Touch such pretty hot topics as the family topic, because a lot of people live for the sake of the husband, wife, or children.
- If the audience is large, use a popular relaxation technique (like yoga ones but without the ideological concept behind it). Help them to relieve stress, relax, sit back, remove unnecessary things from their minds; let them sit back, inhale and exhale three times, etc.
“After that, offer people to remember all they have done wrong, the pain (weight of wrong acts) they bear since childhood: consciously or not. Ask them to name aloud all their sins and turn to God in the simple prayer that God would forgive them “- shared pastor Sunday.
- Offer to help remove the burden off the soul, and find peace through systematic simple psychological training, which can also be used as a way to bring them to repentance and establish them in God.
- When applying these methods it is important that they see Christ crucified on the cross for each of them.
Practice this knowledge and be fruitful in saving lives!
Press-center of the “Embassy of God” church
Translated by Olena Stognii
