“When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.” Acts 11:18
Repentance is a gift. You do not work it up. Repentance is given to us (Ezek. 36:25-31). The fact that I could weep and repent and confess — that is a gift of God. It is not of us. The whole thing is Him, from beginning to end. You draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Then you see your dirty hands, and you see your heart — your motivation and how you manipulate people. You see the duplicity in your heart. You see how thoroughly corrupt you are. And all the time you see that, you say, “Lord, I still love You.” And when you are saying this, He is diffusing His life into your heart. He is changing you. He says, “I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh” (Ezek. 36:26). It is as though He is saying, “You cannot do it. I will take it away. I will give you a new heart. I will give you a heart of flesh. And you will walk in My statutes. You will do it, because I am going to do it in you.”
We once met a sister who was worn out as a believer, and was ready to give up the Christian life. She was forlorn and disappointed, and did not know which way to turn. We opened to Ezekiel 36. She sat there, her face sad because she realized the condition of her heart, but had no way to handle it. Then we looked at these words: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh . . .” Her eyes filled with tears. God was going to do it! She had never seen this before, that He would actually take away the stony heart. She began to weep for joy to see that it was God’s work — God was going to do it all.