We go to confession to say to God: Lord forgive me. Saying these words is not easy. We have to contend with a lot of contravening thoughts, moods and emotions. But we need to say them, otherwise, we will continue to point our fingers at others, look for excuses, and keep wondering why life is so hard, where our misfortunes are coming from, and why God is looking the other way. If we really want things to change in our lives, our plea to God Lord forgive me should come from our hearts.
But it might take many of us a lot of time before these words become the expression of our hearts true desire, and of our heartfelt sorrow and deep remorse for our sin before God and our neighbours, exactly as written in the Scripture: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst(1 Timothy 1:15). I hope that we will all continue our progress, so we can say "Lord forgive me" in this manner. It may not happen today or this year, but we all need it very much. And once we are there, our genuine repentance will bring fundamental change.
Repentance is change, and not just a complaint or an account of one's difficulties or hardships in life; to repent is not to go on about how hard and difficult your life is, how unhappy and misunderstood you are, how everyone has abandoned you and nobody needs you. This is not repentance. True repentance takes a totally different attitude and approach.
You can repeat a hundred times Lord forgive me, but say this with your mouth, not with your heart. Let us pray that the words of repentance find a place in our hearts; that they fill up the space that is now taken by a lot of unnecessary things. These things become deeply entrenched, and cannot be rooted out without great pain and difficulty. May God help us all!
