Most of today's believers don't seem to have the depth or the dedication or the power that the early Christians had.

What do you think is the reason for this?

The primary reason is that they haven't repented properly.

The message Jesus Himself preached was: "Repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). He commanded His apostles to preach the same message (Luke 24:47). And that's exactly what they did (Acts 20:21).

The Word of God is very clear on this. Repentance and faith cannot be separated if you want to be well and truly converted. God has joined these two together. And what God has joined together no man should separate.

Repentance and faith are actually the first two elements of the foundation of the Christian life (Hebrews 6:1). If you haven't repented properly, then your foundation is bound to be faulty. And then, of course, the whole of your Christian life will be shaky.

We see some examples in the Bible of those whose repentance was false.

When King Saul disobeyed God, he admitted to Samuel that he had sinned. But he didn't want the people to know that. He still sought man's honour. He hadn't really repented. He was just sorry that he was caught (1 Samuel 15:24-30). That was the difference between him and King David who openly acknowledged his sin when he fell (Psalm 51).

King Ahab was another like Saul. He felt really sorry for himself when Elijah warned him that God was going to judge him. He even put sackcloth on himself and mourned for his sins (1 Kings 21:27-29). But he didn't really repent. He was just afraid of God's judgement.

Judas Iscariot's case is a clear example of false repentance. When he saw that Jesus had been condemned to death he felt bad and said, "I have sinned" (Matthew 27:3-5). But he made his confession to the priests - just like some do even today! He didn't repent - even though he may have felt sad about what he had done. If he had truly repented, he would have gone to the Lord in brokenness and asked for forgiveness. But he didn't do that.

There's a lot that we can learn from these examples - as to what repentance is not!

True repentance is a "turning to God from idols" (1 Thessalonians 1:9).

Idols are not just those made of wood and stone found in heathen temples. There are equally dangerous idols that people worship that don't look so ugly. These are the idols of pleasure, comfort, money, one's reputation, wanting one's own way etc.

All of us have worshipped these for many years. To repent means to stop worshipping these idols, and to turn away from them to God.

True repentance will involve our whole personality - our mind, our emotions and our will.

First of all, repentance means that we change our mind about sin and the world. We realise that our sin has separated us from God. We also see that the whole way of life of this world is anti-God. And we want to turn away from that God-dishonouring way of life.

Secondly, repentance involves our emotions. We feel sorrowful about the way we've lived (2 Corinthians 7:10). We hate ourselves for our past actions; and more than that, we detest the greater evil that we see within us that no one else can see (Ezekiel 36:31).

We weep and mourn that we have hurt God so much by the way we have lived. That was the reaction of many great men in the Bible when they became aware of their sins. David (Psalm 51), Job (Job 42:6) and Peter (Matthew 26:75) - all wept bitterly when they repented of their sins.

Both Jesus and the apostles have encouraged us to weep and mourn for our sins (Matthew 5:4; James 4:9). That is the way back to God.

Finally, repentance involves our will. We have to yield our stubborn self-will - 'wanting our own way' - and make Jesus Lord of our lives. That means that we are willing to do whatever God wants us to do from now on, whatever the cost and however humiliating it may be.

The prodigal son came back home to his father as a broken, yielded young man who was willing to do anything that his father told him to. That is true repentance (Luke 15:11-24).

We don't have to confess to God every single sin that we've ever committed. It would be impossible to remember all of them in any case. The prodigal son didn't do that. All that he said was, "Father, I have sinned." And that's all we need to say too.

But remember that Judas Iscariot also said, "I have sinned." There was a world of difference however, between his confession and the prodigal son's confession. God doesn't listen only to the words we say. He senses the spirit behind the words, and deals with us accordingly.