Despite all the abstract and esoteric yarns I like to weave around here, I also like very practical advice. Not long ago, I wrote an article about The Woman’s Influence specifically to fill the ladies bones with fire to be an encouragement to their husbands.

There’s so many rabbit trails as to why they might not be, and some of those, well, they just aren’t my story to know. If I’ve learned anything in a life of self-reflection and analysis, it’s that I may never know the deep waters of why that run through someone’s heart, thoughts and behavior. Heck, I may not know my own heart that well, let alone someone else’s. This goes for men or women, but when we stand before God to give an account for our lives, I doubt He’s going to judge on a curve for our journey, past trauma, or high cortisol.

What I do know is the chatter in spaces that men occupy. I’ve seen the rumors and speculations and things men have been confronted with or are thinking about. I’ve seen the songs and charms that wreck them.

I want to shed light into that darkness today. While I may take the long way around to get us there, that’s where we’re sailing.

Note: before I really step in it, I want to nuance that I talk to a lot of guys. Nothing I’m writing today is the specific story of one man, or directly to one woman, but rather it’s an amalgamation of many conversations.

Be careful little heart what you believe.

Those who speak truth do live among us, and they’re friends. Foes speak lies what sound like truth, or attempt to drag you down into their level of failure and sin, or flatter to gain ground through appropriate boundaries. Many of our heroes and leaders have failed us. This goes for men and women. Which brings me to my first point.

Have you heard of the Longhouse? This is a dynamic that’s being talked about frequently in men’s circles. First Things wrote an extensive article on it, which you can click here to read, but the short of it is captured in this sentence: “More than anything, the Longhouse refers to the remarkable overcorrection of the last two generations toward social norms centering feminine needs and feminine methods for controlling, directing, and modeling behavior.” Without a doubt guys are talking about the Longhouse, its affect on their family, churches, and workplaces. If you’re a woman reading this, you may have no idea this conversation is even happening. If you’re a guy reading this, you may have seen the dynamic but haven’t been able to put your finger on it. Check out these meme.

This is really perfect reflection of what guys have gotten for a while. Servant leadership was touted as the way to lead our homes, and I’ve seen that model is making its way into LinkedIn influencers for the workplace. The way it’s been pitched is really a subtle form of manipulation that if the man is good enough, the woman will recognize that and follow. It’s leading by actions, not words, which sounds like a good thing. When it’s actions without words, then it becomes something different. Tame down that male aggression because “happy wife, happy life” guys. If you’re quietly carrying her load by washing the dishes and doing the laundry, well, to put it with a dash of sugar coating, romance begins in the kitchen. Except it doesn’t, and guys are realizing they’ve been sold a bill of goods by passive men and in turn have silently slipped into codependency.

This is putting men in a very strange position, because they thought this is what loving their wives and families looked like. Providing, helping, being tame, not rocking the boat, and leaning into being nice. Men have also been browbeaten and shamed and called toxic for not following this model.

Now, the flip side of the meme, whatever you do, women cannot be called out. Women aren’t to be corrected. They cannot be. Women are the better half of the relationship. If wives are sinning, it’s the husband’s fault. Men can do no right and women can do no wrong. When the servant leadership isn’t working and no response is following, or worse, contempt fills the response, and that contempt and rejection cannot be touched with a 10-foot pole, what does that leave a man with?

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson has had his share of hits and misses, but what he has to say definitely resonates with men. To say his lectures and teachings haven’t had an effect on the manosphere (accompanied by men like Jocko Willink and Joe Rogan and a host of less popular influencers) would be an understatement. Definitely take what he has to say with a grain of salt, but he gave men the challenge: would you rather be useful or pathetic in the face of danger? A harmless man is not a good man. ( <~ this link talks more about that and has an excellent After Skool video of Peterson explaining himself). He challenged men that they should be capable of being absolute monsters, and they should have the wisdom and restraint to keep that monster on a leash. I’m not sure if he read C.S. Lewis or not, but he’s describing the Lancelot ideal.

So, you can see the contradictory discipleship spectrum that men have been receiving. Be quiet and servant-like versus be a dangerous man under control.

It’s at these cross winds of influence his ship is pulled towards an even more dangerous whirlpool.

The man has a job to do. It doesn’t matter how he feels, as I’ve written before. Men were made for the job, made to bear the weight, made to endure the elements. Their broad shoulders were not meant to be pathetic and weak, but strong as protectors and providers. They are meant to be useful in the capacity they can be. His voice may be gone but he has to do his job.

From the barrenness of his task, he hears the call. He’s focused, his head is down, he’s set to his task, he’s making some type of effort to have an affect on the world he inhabits, and then the sweet melody calls to him.

His ideas are embraced. The help he needs is given. His opinion matters. His insight is valuable instead of being a joke. His jokes are laughed at. He’s being complimented.

It’s a simple haircut and he hears “You look good,” or “You look handsome today.”

From another woman.

These may even be all true things said to him and about him, but the point is, ladies, your man needs to hear it from you. You want him to be strong for you and your sons and daughters? Aid his strength. He is responsible to hold up his end regardless if you are there for him or not. Why wouldn’t you be, though? Guys, you have no excuses for your actions or lack thereof, but ladies, neither do you.

Ladies, a guy can run on a heartfelt and genuine compliment or act of affection or gesture of respect for a long time. I’m talking weeks, if not longer. Can you imagine what the effect on him would be if you gave these gifts to him multiple times a day? In the vacuum of the wasteland of the outside world, it does not take much to float his boat. Maybe you’ve been taught submission means to lose your voice and be under his thumb. He needs you to be the wind in his sails, not the mat to wipe the mud off his feet or the rat exiled to the bilge water below deck.

You have the frontlines moment to be a life giver.

But what happens when the silky smooth compliments and respect come from an admiring voice that’s soft and sweet, and maybe even a bit sultry? Throw in the woman who likes to stretch her arms and shoulders out while near your husband. Come on, we all know what they’re doing. What about when the tree of knowledge of good and evil offers up a promise of life that he’s longed would come from you? Well, your man is sailing in dangerous waters, and often arrived there simply by going about his merry way of trying to accomplish his work tasks to provide for you. He wasn’t looking for temptation, it came looking for him. Either he is aware that he is in a fight with a very real agent of Poseidon here, or he is a fool who pathetically puts up no fight and follows the call like a sheep to the slaughter. The third option is that he is unaffected, but that is a path he cannot get to on his own. The only way for him to sail past the sirens unaffected is if you, lady and wife, are out-sirening the sirens. This does not mean you are required to look like some floozy bimbo inhabiting a port town to relieve every sailor of his coins.

It means, very simply, that you are there with him. Remind him you’re his, and want to be his, and keep telling him, “Eyes forward. I believe in you.” Ask for his opinion. Ask him to show you how to do something. Ask him to tell you about things he’s interested in or that are important to him. Stick up for him in front of the kids. Support his decisions, great or small. Compliment him. Thank him for going out into the wilderness for you and enduring all its hardships - and temptations - in order to bring home what he does. Find ways to show your appreciation to him. Don’t penalize him when he is truthful with you.

Find out what the heading is for the voyage, understand the vision, cradle his face in your hands, be with him, and help him keep his eyes forward.

The sirens won’t stand a chance.

Guard your ways. There is a world out there that wants nothing more than to pull you into it and dark forces that want nothing more than to see you, your faith, and your family shipwrecked and disgraced. I know you’re tired and there’s a lot going on and you’re stressed out and you can’t even, and so does the devil whose draining your husband of the life you could give him and offering up a siren who is not tired and overwhelmed and stressed out. These are dangerous waters your enemy knows better than you or I do.

Whoever you are, be open to correction.

Take counsel from King David when he was reviled by Shimei.

Consider for a moment: “Maybe this is from the Lord?”

When someone corrects you or says something about you that you don’t like, pause your reaction and ask, “What if they’re right? Is there any truth to what they’re saying?”

Wherever you are on it, the Longhouse will be a house of cards that falls.

And King David came to Bahurim, and behold, there came out from there a man of the family of the house of Saul whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera; he came out cursing continually as he came. ⁶ He also threw stones at David and at all the servants of King David; and all the people and all the mighty men were at his right hand and at his left. ⁷ And thus Shimei said when he cursed, “Get out, get out, you man of bloodshed, and vile fellow! ⁸ Yahweh has returned upon you all the bloodshed of the house of Saul, in whose place you have reigned; and Yahweh has given the kingdom into the hand of your son Absalom. And behold, you are taken in your own evil, for you are a man of bloodshed!”

⁹ Then Abishai the son of Zeruiah said to the king, “Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king? Let me pass over now and remove his head.” ¹⁰ But the king said, “What have I to do with you, O sons of Zeruiah? If he curses, and if Yahweh has told him, ‘Curse David,’ then who shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’” ¹¹ Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my son who came forth from my body seeks my life; how much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone and let him curse, for Yahweh has told him. ¹² Perhaps Yahweh will look on my affliction and return good to me instead of his cursing this day.” ¹³ So David and his men went on the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside parallel with him and as he went he cursed and cast stones and threw dust at him. ¹⁴ Then the king and all the people who were with him arrived weary and he refreshed himself there.

2 Samuel 16:5-14, LSB

So, what’s the armor we put on today? What’s our Takeaway?

Life would probably be a whole lot easier if we just lived and obeyed the wisdom of God.

Men, women, husbands, wives, sons, daughters… what are you going to take away from this? It’s not complicated, but it is difficult.

Love and respect. This is how we can cultivate the horizontal relationships we have with each other as we are pursuing that vertical relationship with God.

We must keep Ephesians 6:12 in mind:

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We are not at war with each other, but some days it may feel like that. This may be causing some readers to chafe but at the very least we have to look at it. If we are living transactionally, in any relationship, it’s going to feel like a power struggle. It doesn’t have to be that way. In the gospel, we were given what we didn’t earn or deserve. In whatever relationship you find yourself in, what love looks like in that moment may require you to lay down your arms and open them instead, even if they haven’t earned or deserve it. That act of love may be the strength they need to fight another day.

How’s are you going to protect one another? What steps can you take towards that goal today? Maybe you’re doubting. Will it hurt to try?

Today is the day for reconciliation and healing.

You can give life today. You can withhold life today.

Which path will you choose?

Stay Anchored and keep fighting the good fight,

~ J.P. Simons ⚓️

PS: If you haven’t already ordered it, please check out my first book, Pray Then Plow: Practical Steps For Men Who Won’t Give Up.

Let’s just jump straight back into Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices by Thomas Brooks. It’s been all about the ladies for February, so let’s not forget that the devil and his legions hate you, too. You’ll face attacks and deceptions that will try to convince you your change will be easy. This is something you’re going to have to resist the headwinds of your feelings and press on for the greater goal and growth and sanctification. Of course, these temptations will not be exclusive to you, ladies. Men will be tempted to easily do all this repentance under their own power and wisdom, too. It’s going to take all of us submitting ourselves to Scripture and removing the log in our own eyes before we start “what about-ing” for specs in our spouses eye.

Also, this device and series of remedies is a bit of a long one. If for some reason your email provider chops it off, you can click on the Title of this newsletter to read it online.

DEVICE 6: By persuading the soul that the work of repentance is an easy work; and that therefore the soul need not make such a matter of sin. Why! Suppose you do sin, says Satan, it is no such difficult thing to return, and confess, and be sorrowful, and beg pardon, and cry, 'Lord, have mercy upon me!' and if you do but this, God will forgive your debt, and pardon your sins, and save your souls.

By this device Satan draws many a soul to sin, and makes many millions of souls servants of sin, or rather slaves to sin.

Remedy (1). The first remedy is, seriously to consider, That repentance is a mighty work, a difficult work, a work that is above our power. There is no power below that power which raised Christ from the dead, and which made the world—which can break the heart of a sinner, or turn the heart of a sinner! You are as well able to melt adamant, as to melt your own heart; to turn a flint into flesh, as to turn your own heart to the Lord; to raise the dead and to make a world, as to repent. Repentance is a flower wich does not grow in nature's garden! 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.' (Jer. 13:23). Repentance is a gift that comes down from above. Men are not born with repentance in their hearts, as they are born with tongues in their mouths: (Acts 5:31): 'Him has God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior—to give repentance.' Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will." (2 Timothy 2:25-26) It is not in the power of any mortal to repent at pleasure. Some ignorant deluded souls vainly conceit that these five words, 'Lord! have mercy upon me,' are efficacious to send them to heaven; but as many are undone by buying a counterfeit jewel, so many are in hell by mistake of their repentance. Many rest in their repentance, which caused on to say, 'Repentance damns more than sin!' It was a vain brag of king Cyrus, that caused it to be written upon his tombstone, 'I can do all things!' So could Paul, too—but it was 'through Christ, who strengthened him.'

Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider of the nature of true repentance. Repentance is some other thing, than what vain men conceive. The Hebrew word for repentance signifies to return, implying a going back from what a man had done. It denotes a turning or converting from one thing to another, from sin to God. The Greeks have two words by which they express the nature of repentance, one signifies to be careful, anxious, solicitous, after a thing is done; the other word denotes after-wisdom, the mind's recovering of wisdom, or growing wiser after our folly. True repentance is a thorough change both of the mind and life. Repentance for sin is nothing worth without repentance from sin. "If you repent with a contradiction," says Tertullian, "God will pardon you with a contradiction; if you repent and yet continue in your sin, God will pardon you, and yet send you to hell—there is a pardon with a contradiction. Negative goodness serves no man's turn, to save him from the axe."

Repentance is sometimes taken, in a more strict and narrow sense, for godly sorrow; sometimes repentance is taken, in a large sense, for amendment of life. Repentance has in it three things, namely, the act, subject, and terms.

(1) The formal ACT of repentance is a changing and converting. It is often set forth in Scripture by turning. 'Turn me, and I shall be turned,' says Ephraim; 'after I was turned, I repented,' says he (Jer. 31:18, 19). It is a turning from darkness to light.

(2) The SUBJECT changed and converted is the whole man; it is both the sinner's heart and life: first his heart, then his life; first his person, then his practice and lifestyle. 'Wash, be clean,' there is the change of their persons; 'Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do well' (Is. 1:16, 17); there is the change of their practices. 'Cast away,' says Ezekiel, 'all your transgressions whereby you have transgressed;' there is the change of the life; 'and make you a new heart and a new spirit' (18:31); there is the change of the heart.

(3) The TERMS of this change and conversion, from which and to which both heart and life must be changed; from sin to God. The heart must changed from the state and power of sin, the life from the acts of sin—but both unto God; the heart to be under his power in a state of grace, the life to be under his rule in all new obedience; and the apostle speaks, 'To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God' (Acts 26:18). So the prophet Isaiah says, 'Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord' (55:7).

Thus much of the nature of evangelical repentance. Now, souls, tell me whether it be such an easy thing to repent, as Satan does suggest. Besides what has been spoken, I desire that you will take notice, that repentance does include turning from the most darling sin. Ephraim shall say, 'What have I to do any more with idols?' (Hosea 14:8). Yes, it is a turning from all sin to God (Ezek. 18:30): 'Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, everyone according to his ways, says the Lord God. Repent, and turn yourselves from your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.'

Herod turned from many—but turned not from his Herodias, which was his ruin. Judas turned from all visible wickedness, yet he would not cast out that golden devil 'covetousness', and therefore was cast into the hottest place in hell. He who turns not from every sin, turns not aright from any one sin. Every sin strikes at the honor of God, the being of God, the glory of God, the heart of Christ, the joy of the Spirit, and the peace of a man's conscience; and therefore a soul truly penitent strikes at all, hates all, conflicts with all, and will labor to draw strength from a crucified Christ to crucify all sins. A true penitent knows neither father nor mother, neither right eye nor right hand— but will pluck out the one and cut off the other. Saul spared but one Agag, and that cost him his soul and his kingdom (1 Sam. 15:9).

Besides, repentance is not only a turning from all sin—but also a turning to all good; to a love of all good, to a prizing of all good, and to a following after all good (Ezek. 18:21): 'But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.' Mere negative righteousness and holiness is neither true righteousness nor true holiness. The evil servant did not use his one talent in debauchery (Matt. 25:18). Those reprobates (Matt. 25:41-45), did not rob the saints—but merely did not help them. For this they must eternally perish.

David fulfilled all the will of God, and had respect unto all his commandments, and so had Zacharias and Elizabeth. It is not enough that the tree does not bear bad fruit; but it must bring forth good fruit, else it must be 'cut down and cast into the fire' (Luke 13:7). So it is not enough that you are not thus and thus wicked—but you must be thus and thus gracious and godly, else divine justice will put the axe of divine vengeance to the root of your souls, and cut you off forever. 'The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.' (Matt. 3:10). Besides, repentance does include a sensibleness of sin's sinfulness—how opposite and contrary sin is to the blessed God. God is light, sin is darkness; God is life, sin is death; God is heaven, sin is hell; God is beauty, sin is deformity.

Also true repentance includes a sensibleness of sin's destructiveness; how it cast angels out of heaven, and Adam out of paradise; how it laid the first cornerstone in hell, and brought in all the curses, crosses, and miseries, that are in the world; and how it makes men liable to all temporal, spiritual and eternal wrath; how it has made men Godless, Christless, hopeless and heavenless.

Further, true repentance includes sorrow for sin, contrition of heart. It breaks the heart with sighs, and sobs, and groans—that by sin—a loving God and Father is offended; a blessed Savior afresh crucified, and the sweet Comforter, the Spirit, grieved and vexed.

Again, repentance does include, not only a loathing of sin—but also a loathing of ourselves for sin. As a man does not only loathe poison—but he loathes the very dish or vessel that has the smell of the poison; so a true penitent does not only loathe his sin—but he loathes himself, the vessel that smells of it; so Ezek. 20:43: 'And there shall you remember your ways and all your doings, wherein you have been defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that you have committed.' True repentance will work your hearts, not only to loathe your sins—but to loathe yourselves.

True repentance is a sorrowing for sin, as it is an offence to God and against God. Repentance both comes from God, and drives a man to God, as it did the church in the Canticles, and the prodigal.

Again, true repentance does not only work a man to loathe himself for his sins—but it makes him ashamed of his sin also: 'What fruit had you in those things whereof you are now ashamed?' says the apostle (Rom. 6:21). So Ezekiel: 'And you shall be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done, says the Lord God' (16:63). When a penitent soul sees his sins pardoned, the anger of God pacified, the divine justice satisfied, then he sits down and blushes, as one ashamed. 'So much the more God has been displeased with the blackness of sin, the more will he be pleased with the blushing of the sinner' (Bernard). Those who do not burn now in zeal against sin must before long burn in hell for sin.

Yes, true repentance makes a man to deny his sinful self, and to walk contrary to sinful self, to take a holy revenge upon sin, as you may see in Paul, the jailor, Mary Magdalene, and Manasseh. This the apostle shows in 2 Cor. 7:10, 11: 'Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.'

Now souls, sum up all these things together, and tell me whether it would be such an easy thing to repent as Satan would make the soul to believe, and I am confident your heart will answer that it is as hard a thing to repent as it is to make a world, or raise the dead!

I shall conclude this second remedy with a worthy saying of a precious holy man: 'Repentance,' says he, 'strips us stark naked of all the garments of the old Adam, and leaves not so much as a shirt behind.' In this rotten building it leaves not a stone upon a stone. As the flood drowned Noah's own friends and servants, so must the flood of repenting tears drown our sweetest and most darling sins.

Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is seriously to consider, That repentance is a continued act. The word repent implies the continuation of it. Anselm confesses, that all his life was either damnable for sin committed, or unprofitable for good omitted; and at last concludes, "Oh, what then remains, but in our whole life—but to lament the sins of our whole life." True repentance inclines a man's heart to perform God's statutes always, even unto the end. A true penitent must go on from faith to faith, from strength to strength; he must never stand still nor turn back. Repentance is a grace, and must have its daily operation as well as other graces. True repentance is a continued spring, where the waters of godly sorrow are always flowing: 'My sin is ever before me' (Psalm 51:3). A true penitent is often casting his eyes back to the days of his former vanity, and this makes him morning and evening to 'water his couch with his tears.' 'Remember not against me the sins of my youth,' says one blessed penitent; and 'I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man,' says another penitent.

Repentance is a continued act of turning, a repentance never to be repented of, a turning never to turn again to folly. A true penitent has ever something within him to turn from; he can never get near enough to God; no, not so near him as once he was; and therefore he is still turning and turning that he may get nearer and nearer to him, who is his chief good and his only happiness, optimum maximum, the best and the greatest. They are every day a-crying out, 'O wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us from this body of death!' (Rom. 7:24). They are still sensible of sin, and still conflicting with sin, and still sorrowing for sin, and still loathing of themselves for sin. Repentance is no transient act—but a continued act of the soul.

And tell me, O tempted soul, whether it be such an easy thing as Satan would make you believe, to be every day a-turning more and more from sin, and a-turning nearer and nearer to God, your choicest blessedness. A true penitent can as easily content himself with one act of faith, or one act of love, as he can content himself with one act of repentance.

A Jewish Rabbi, pressing the practice of repentance upon his disciples, and exhorting them to be sure to repent the day before they died, one of them replied, that the day of any man's death was very uncertain. 'Repent, therefore, every day,' said the Rabbi, 'and then you shall be sure to repent the day before you die.' You are wise, and know how to apply it to your own advantage.

Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is solemnly to consider, That if the work of repentance were such an easy work as Satan would make it to be, then certainly so many would not lie roaring and crying out of wrath and eternal ruin under the horrors and terrors of conscience, for not repenting! Yes, doubtless, so many millions would not go to hell for not repenting, if it were such an easy thing to repent. Ah, do not poor souls under horror of conscience cry out and say, Were all this world a lump of gold, and in our hand to dispose of—we would give it for the least particle of true repentance! And will you say it is an easy thing to repent?

When a poor sinner, whose conscience is awakened, shall judge the exchange of all the world for the least particle of repentance to be the happiest exchange that ever a sinner made; tell me, O soul, is it good going to hell? Is it good dwelling with the devouring fire, with everlasting burnings? Is it good to be forever separated from the blessed and glorious presence of God, and saints, and to be forever shut out from those good things of eternal life, which are so many, that they exceed number; so great, that they exceed measure; so precious, that they exceed all estimation? We know it is the greatest misery that can befall the sons of men; and would they not prevent this by repentance, if it were such an easy thing to repent as Satan would have it?

Well, then, do not run the hazard of losing God, Christ, heaven, and your soul forever, by hearkening to this device of Satan—that is, that it is an easy thing to repent. If it be so easy, why, then, do wicked men's hearts so rise against those who press the doctrine of repentance upon them in the sweetest way, and by the strongest and the choicest arguments that the Scriptures afford? And why do they kill two at once: the faithful laborer's name and their own souls, by their wicked words and actings, because they are put upon repenting, which Satan tells them is so easy a thing? Surely, were repentance so easy, wicked men would not be so much enraged when that doctrine is, by evangelical considerations, pressed upon them.

"If you be backward in the thoughts of repentance, be forward in the thoughts of hell, the flames whereof only the streams of the penitent eye can extinguish" (Tertullian). "Oh, how shall you tear and rend yourself! how shall you lament fruitless repenting! What will you say? Woe is me, that I have not cast off the burden of sin; woe is me, that I have not washed away my spots—but am now pierced with my iniquities; now have I lost the surpassing joy of angels!" (Basil).

Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is seriously to consider, That to repent of sin is as great a work of grace, as not to sin. (Yet it is better to be kept from sin than cured of sin by repentance; as it is better for a man to be preserved from a disease than to be cured of the disease.) By our sinful falls—the powers of the soul are weakened; the strength of grace is decayed; our evidences for heaven are blotted; fears and doubts in the soul are raised (will God once more pardon this scarlet sin, and show mercy to this wretched soul?); the corruptions in the heart are more advantaged and confirmed; and the conscience of a man after falls is the more enraged or the more benumbed. Now for a soul, notwithstanding all this, to repent of his falls—this shows that it is as great a work of grace to repent of sin as it is not to sin.

Repentance is the vomit of the soul; and of all purgatives, none so difficult and hard as it is to vomit. The same means that tends to preserve the soul from sin, the same means works the soul to rise by repentance when it is fallen into sin. We know the mercy and loving-kindness of God is one special means to keep the soul from sin; as David spoke, 'I am constantly aware of your unfailing love, and I have lived according to your truth. I do not spend time with liars or go along with hypocrites. I hate the gatherings of those who do evil, and I refuse to join in with the wicked.' (Psalm 26:3-5). So by the same means the soul is raised by repentance out of sin, as you may see in Mary Magdalene, who loved much, and wept much, because much was forgiven her (Luke 7:37-39). So those in Hosea: 'Come, let us return to the LORD! He has torn us in pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds. In just a short time, he will restore us so we can live in his presence.' (Hos. 6:1, 2); as the Hebrew has it, 'in his favor'. Confidence in God's mercy and love, that he would heal them, and bind up their wounds, and revive their dejected spirits, and cause them to live in his favor, was that which worked their hearts to repent and return unto him. I might further show you this truth in many other particulars—but this may suffice: only remember this in the general, that there is as much of the power of God, and love of God, and faith in God, and fear of God, and care to please God, zeal for the glory of God (2 Cor. 7:11) requisite to work a man to repent of sin, as there is to keep a man from sin; by which you may easily judge, that to repent of sin is as great a work as not to sin. And now tell me, O soul, is it an easy thing not to sin? We know then certainly it is not an easy thing to repent of sin.

Remedy (6). The sixth remedy against this device of Satan is, seriously to consider, That he who now tempts you to sin upon this account, that repentance is easy, will, before long, to work you to despair, and forever to break the neck of your soul, present repentance as the most difficult and hardest work in the world; and to this purpose he will set your sins in order before you, and make them to say, 'We are yours, and we must follow you.' Bede tells of a certain great man that was admonished in his sickness to repent, who answered that he would not repent yet; for if he should recover, his companions would laugh at him; but growing more and more sick, his friends pressed him again to repent—but then he told them it was too late, for now, said he; I am judged and condemned.

Now, Satan will help to work the soul to look up, and see God angry; and to look inward, and to see conscience accusing and condemning; and to look downwards, and see hell's mouth open to receive the impenitent soul: and all this to render the work of repentance impossible to the soul. What, says Satan, do you think that that is easy which the whole power of grace cannot conquer while we are in this world? Is it easy, says Satan, to turn from some outward act of sin to which you have been addicted? Do you not remember that you have often complained against such and such particular sins, and resolved to leave them? And yet, to this hour, you have not, you cannot! What will it then be to turn from every sin? Yes, to mortify and cut off those sins, those darling lusts, which are as joints and limbs, which are as right hands and right eyes? Have you not loved your sins above your Savior? Have you not preferred earth before heaven? Have you not all along neglected the means of grace? and despised the offers of grace? and vexed the Spirit of grace? There would be no end, if I would set before you the infinite evils that you have committed, and the innumerable good services that you have omitted, and the frequent checks of your own conscience that you have condemned; and therefore you may well conclude that you can never repent, that you shall never repent.

Now, says Satan, do but a little consider your numberless sins, and the greatness of your sins, the foulness of your sins, the heinousness of your sins, the circumstances of your sins—and you shall easily see that those sins that you thought to be but motes, are indeed mountains; and is it not now in vain to repent of them? Surely, says Satan, if you should seek repentance and grace with tears, as Esau, you shall not find it! Your sand has run through the hour-glass, your sun has set, the door of mercy is shut, the golden scepter is withdrawn; and now you that have despised mercy, shall be forever destroyed by justice. For such a wretch as you are to attempt repentance is to attempt a thing impossible. It is impossible that you, that in all your life could never conquer on sin, should master such a numberless number of sins; which are so near, so dear, so necessary, and so profitable to you, that have so long bedded and boarded with you, that have been old acquaintance and companions with you. Have you not often purposed, promised, vowed, and resolved to enter upon the practice of repentance—but to this day could never attain it? Surely it is in vain to strive against the stream, where it is so impossible to overcome; you are lost and cast off forever; to hell you must go, to hell you shall go! Ah, souls! he who now tempts you to sin, by suggesting to you the easiness of repentance, will at last work you to despair, and present repentance as the hardest work in all the world, and a work as far above man as heaven is above hell, as light is above darkness. Oh that you were wise, to break off your sins by timely repentance. Repentance is a work that must be timely done, or utterly undone forever.

~ Thomas Brooks