On Repentance and Faith

First, repentance is about trusting, not willing. Yes, there is a choice involved, but if our motive is determined straining to please God, all our striving will be a pile of filthy rags. We can do nothing--absolutely nothing to make provision for our sin. In repentance we depend on God to turn water into wine. Trust in our act of repentance releases the gift of God's grace to transform our hope into reality.
--TrueFaced by Bill Thrall et. al, p.103

The book quoted above significantly changed my concept of repentance. I have never really seen repentance as an act of faith in itself. In the past, I have always considered repentance as a sort of agreeing with God about my sin: I would confess that I was wrong, express real and heartfelt remorse, and then tell God that I wanted to do better--that I was going to try to do better. True repentance, however, recognizes that I am hopelessly unable to fix my sin problem by trying. Repentance is actually a form of trust in God that He is going to perform the impossible and conqueror a specific sin. In many ways, it has very little to do with willing, but everything to do with trusting in His grace. Real repentance, the kind that actually causes a sin to cease, takes place when we are "true-faced" before God. We confess our inability and our enslavement to sin, and trust in His power to change us. What a freeing (and challenging) way to approach sin!