Repentance – Change of Action, not Emotion

“Bear fruit in keeping with repentance”

Matthew 3:8

“The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent”

Acts 17:30

Repentance is all about action. No one cares about your feelings, what you are experiencing emotionally or what chemical reaction is going on in your brain. When it comes to repentance, and when it comes to Christianity as a whole, what matters is your actions. Feel however you want, if you do not act, your feelings means nothing.

Repentance is a change of action. Beta males use the cliche “Repentance is a change in heart that results in a change in action”. Wrong. The “heart” is not necessary. Only the change in action is necessary. By saying that repentance is a “change in heart”, it is implied that some emotions should be involved. This is common propaganda that has no basis in reality whatsoever. Feelings are absolutely meaningless when it comes to repentance. If you “feel really bad” about all your sins, but do nothing to change, then you have nothing. Will feelings alone save you? No. Why? Because feelings mean nothing without action. 

Repentance is not possible without stopping the sin.

Stopping an evil action is an action in itself. The best part about repentance: you do not have to feel a single thing. Just as feeling bad without taking action is meaningless, if you take action yet feel nothing, that is okay because you repented, i.e. you change your actions. 

All you have to do is stop whatever sin you are in the habit of committing. And I have a surprise for you: you are not going to enjoy stopping the sin. Do you think any man wants to stop going out and having sex with different women every weekend? No. In order to repent of that, he is going to have to make a major sacrifice in giving up that sex. That is not fun. Repenting is not a fun thing. It’s not an emotional experience, even though you might mistakenly think it is after attending a youth rally or a liberal church. 

Repentance for men should be a stoic experience, in which a man takes seriously his commitment to change himself.

He isn’t signing up for a fun time or an emotional experience. He is not changing with a romanticized delusion of what change is. Many men attempt to change while inspired by their emotions and they fail and fall back into their sin mere weeks later. The same beta males make New Year’s resolutions and fail.

Now all of this is not to say that all emotions are completely useless. They can be used as a catalyst for change, but I advise against this. Because the zeal and fervent desire to change that you feel at the moment will fade away quickly. That inspiration will not last. The motivation will fade into nothing. What will you use to drive your change then? When the alcohol withdrawals kick in and you want nothing more than a drink to take the edge off, where are your emotions then? Where are your motivations then? Are you having the same “moving emotional experience” you had when you first decided to change? No. You have no internal motivating factors and will thus fail in your goal of changing. You will make the same New Year’s resolutions next year, and you will fail them again. Do not base a change in behavior on a temporary feeling. You wouldn’t commit to marriage based on emotion alone (unless you are an irrational male), so do not commit to a major lifestyle change based on emotion. 

Mantra

Action dominates over emotion.

Application

Cast aside the emotions and take up the strength of discipline. Acquire internal motivating factors when it comes to behavior change. It is not enough to be motivated or inspired to change. You must have internal, mental motivating factors. 

Ignore how you feel at all times and set your focus on changing the behavior. You must have clear long term goals for who you want to be as an individual. You must imagine yourself as the ideal man. Picture in your mind who you want to be, then imitate that individual. Copy how he interacts with others, his work ethic, his character, his strength of mind and his discipline. When you have a clear vision for who you want to be, you have internal motivating factors.

When it comes to repentance, imagine yourself as the man who has already defeated your evil. Imagine yourself as a man who doesn’t drink alcohol and who isn’t even tempted to do so. Picture yourself as the man who doesn’t use drugs or who has complete control over his words. Visualize yourself as a man who dominates the sin of lust and has his penis under complete control. When you put these images in your mind, eventually they become reality. 

Thoughts become things.

Dominate each day. Do not worry about the long term, only worry about today. Only examine the long term goal after you have progressed a great distance, then look at how far you have come to motivate yourself to go even farther. Repentance equals change. Change is action. Action must be consistent day after day after day. Commit to the change for the long run. 

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.