Perhaps the best example of the acknowledgement of true moral guilt and godly repentance is found in David's prayer, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight." (Psalm 51:4). David said this after committing adultery with Bathsheba and sending her husband to the front lines, knowing he would be killed. This was no namby-pamby apology. If you read it all, David accepts blame for his choices and behavior and throws himself on God's mercy.

The devotional writer, Oswald Chambers, gets to the heart of true repentance when he writes that real repentance results in someone becoming "the opposite of what he was, by God's grace. Repentance always brings a man to this point: I have sinned. The surest sign that God is at work is when a man says that and means it. Anything less than this is remorse for having made blunders, the reflex action of disgust at himself."

In our medicated, psychobabble culture, we don't hear much about repentance, even from a lot of clergy, but it is the ticket to forgiveness and the pathway back to God for all of us who have wandered from Him; as all have.