The word repent comes from two words; “think” and “with/after.” People often will translate the word “repent” to mean “to change your mind,” or “to turn,” and in a sense, it does mean that because once you come to think with someone else’s thinking about a situation, you change your mind, and turn from the direction that you were going in.
More importantly than that, though, is the reality that repentance is to change your mind toward something, which results in turning from something. It is actually changing your mind toward someone. Look at 1 Thessalonians 1:9, “For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you and how you turned to God, from idols to serve the living and true God. This is a beautiful description of repentance. They turned to God, and in turning to God, they turned from idols. Repentance always involves turning to Jesus’s thinking and adequacy concerning any issue. Once you’ve turned to Jesus, then you’ve turned from your own wisdom and strength. The Christian life is always about looking to Christ and seeing all things from your union with Christ. Repentance is simply doing that anytime you discover that you haven’t been.