Saying "I’m Sorry."
A while back, my wife and I had an argument. We were both to blame. “Do you want me to say I’m sorry?” asked Mary Ann after a while. I just stood there nodding my head yes. “I’m sorry,” said Mary Ann. After hearing her apology, the cold ice seemed to melt away from my heart. We hugged and made up. Then I did something that I should do more often, I too said I was sorry for what had happened. Things again were happy in Brian & Mary Ann’s world.
Saying the words, “I’m sorry,” are not easy to say for most people. They are an admittance of guilt. Phrases like “I did it” or “I’m guilty” don’t naturally spring from our mouths. Therefore, a phrase like, “I’m sorry,” doesn’t jump to the tip of our tongues when we find ourselves in a difficult situation.
In the example above, I said how much better I felt after hearing, “I’m sorry.” I’m a merely a human being and I felt good afterward. Imagine how God feels after hearing the words, “I’m sorry.” Imagine how God feels after he sees actions that represent a sorrowful repentance for our wrongs. There are different ways for telling God, “I’m sorry.” The ways differ according to the circumstance.
1) If we are not a Christian, we should repent of our sins (say “I’m sorry for our sins) and be baptized (immersed) underneath the water and receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38) -repent has the meaning of turning around in a different direction from how we have been living.
2) If we are Christians, we can simply ask God to forgive us for any particular sin. This is a sign of, “I’m sorry.”
3) As Christians, we can take one of our sinful behaviors and perform it less often. This demonstrates the principle of James 1:22 – Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. This is the theory of, “Actions speak louder than words.”
As a Christian, I find myself using #’s 2 & 3. I find # 3 the most difficult. Just like in actual life with my wife, friends, family and co-workers, saying “I’m sorry” is the easy part. Changing an offensive behavior is the hard part. It’s one thing to say “I’m sorry” to my wife for being late. But if I continue to be late time and time again, that apology sounds mighty hollow. I think we’d all agree that actions are more difficult than words. Whether we are saying “I’m sorry,” to a friend, family member, co-worker, spouse, or God, we need to change the behavior that got us to say “I’m sorry,” in the first place. That shows we mean it.
