True Repentance

Yesterday in the Lincoln Branch in Lincoln, MT, we had a lesson on Repentance in our Gospel Principles class. We talked about the 7 steps to repentance: Recognize, Feel Sorrow, Forsake, Confess, Restitution, Forgive Others, and Keep the Commandments. We discussed how all of them are absolutely vital to experience true repentance and to feel the Atonement. Well today in my personal study I was reading in Mormon and I came across verse 13 in chapter 2 and it reads, "..for their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God; but it was rather the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin." At this point in the Book of Momon, Mormon is leading the Nephite army into battle. Despite defeating the Lamanites, the spirit of the Lord is not with them because of their sinful lifestyle. Well, the Nephites began to repent of their iniquity just like Samuel the Lamanite and Abinadi had prophesied. But they did not repent because they felt bad for sinning, they repented because they weren't happy. To experience true repentance and to actually have the Atonement take place in your spiritual life, you have to feel Godly sorrow. You have to not only feel bad, but desire to do better and totally forsake everything bad in your life. Godly sorrow is absolutely necessary for true repentance.