This is an exercise designed to help you (and me) carefully think through how God wants you to change, and to provide a pattern for praying through the matter.  There are several reasons for ‘repenting carefully’:

1. It demonstrates that you are willing to work hard in order to be pleasing to God.

2. It helps you to view sin as God does.  It is easy for us to ‘get used’ to sinning.  When you put a lot of time into thinking about your actions from God’s perspective, you begin to make that perspective your own.

3. It helps you to follow through with what you know to be right.  You may find yourself repenting of the same sin over and over again.  Many times this is because you do not make plans to change, or you do not take time to prepare yourself for the next time you are tempted in the same way.

4. It helps you to take sin seriously.  When you write out what your sin is, why the Bible says it is wrong, and what you are going to do the next time, it becomes a big deal in your mind.  Every sin is a ‘bid deal’ to God.  It should be a ‘big deal’ to us too.

You may want to use this pattern for working through the sins that you ‘repent’ of over and over again.  I strongly recommend that you buy the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Kruis.  It will help you to find passages of Scripture that address your specific sins.

So, here is the pattern for you to follow: "Thinking and Praying Biblically About My Sin"

• Lord, please forgive me for…
• I know that you hate this sin because you tell me in your Word that…
• I know that I need to replace this wrong attitude, thought, or action with one that is pleasing to you.  Help me to ‘put off the old man’ and to ‘put on the new man.’ Help me to instead…
• Give me strength as I work to bring about these changes for your glory.  I need strength as I plan to…
• Help me next time that I am tempted to sin in this way to instead…
• Thank you for…

Here is the pattern with an example for how you might do it:

Thinking and Praying Biblically About My Sin

Lord, please forgive me for…

Slandering people.  I make a big deal of other people’s faults, and I ignore my own faults.  I am proud.  I have a condescending attitude toward others.  I don’t do these things constantly, but even one time is sin.

I know that you hate this sin because you tell me in your Word that…[quote Scripture]

I should be loving and truthful.  You say in Ephesians 4.15, “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.”  Verse 29 says, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.  Proverbs 10.19 says, “When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.”  Prov. 12.18 says, “Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

I know that I need to replace this wrong attitude, thought, or action with one that is pleasing to you.  Help me to ‘put off the old man’ and to ‘put on the new man.’ Help me to instead…

Build up others.  Help me to encourage others.  If I think someone did something wrong, help me to try to restore that person according to Matt 18 and Gal 6.  Help me to pray for others.  Help me to do things for others (serving them because I love them and You).  Help me to become more humble, serving, cheerful, loving, forgiving, and prayerful.

Give me strength as I work to bring about these changes for your glory.  I need strength as I plan to…

• I will list on the back of this sheet 5 people that I have slandered most recently.  I will pray for each one.  I will also add their names to my prayer list so that I begin to pray for them regularly (I will see people as God sees people rather than think of people from a selfish perspective).
• Each morning this week, I will identify at least one person that I think I will see ‘today.’  I will plan a specific way to encourage that person (I will build up rather than tear down).

Help me next time that I am tempted to sin in this way to instead…

Pray for You to help the person that I am tempted to slander.  Help me to say something encouraging to the person to whom I am talking with at the time.  Help me to build up the person that I am talking to rather than tear down someone.

Thank you for…

Showing me my sin of slandering others.  Thank you for helping me to understand my actions, words, and thoughts from your perspective.  Thank you for giving me your power to change the way that I talk.  Thank you for using me to bring glory to Yourself.  You are a wonderful heavenly Father.

I suggest that write out your thoughts as you follow this plan of careful repentance.  After you have followed the pattern several times, I think you will find it to become a habit, and writing may not be so necessary.