So, have you been cornered and told you need to repent? Has someone waved a big scary Family Edition Sized, gold leaf bound, ink on vellum leather bound Bible in your face or possibly hit you over the head with it?
Has someone told you that you are going to hell unless you repent even though you do believe that Christ died for you?
Have you done your Jim dandy bestest to repent and still find your feet dragging up to the altar every time the call goes out for repentance?
Do you promise yourself you will not commit that sin again or possibly just stop sinning altogether every time you get yelled at in church by an itinerant Evangelist or Mrs. Clout prays for 45 minutes at the Wednesday night prayer meeting and you fall asleep and fall off your chair and she points at you as you wake up and shrills 'there! that is what I am talking about?'
well, the reason you keep flailing and failing is a lack of understanding of what repent actually means and what the event actually entails
Many understand the term repentance (from the Greek word metanoia) to mean “turning from sin.” This is not the biblical definition of repentance. In the Bible, the word repent means “to change one’s mind.” The Bible also tells us that true repentance will result in a change of actions (Luke 3:8-14; Acts 3:19). Acts 26:20 declares, “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” The full biblical definition of repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action. (source)