What is it about?
This study examines how Christians experience reconciliation with God after personal wrongdoing. Following 175 U.S. Christians for 16 days, we found that repentance and experiencing God’s forgiveness increased most rapidly during the first few days. Repentance tended to precede later experiences of forgiveness, which in turn were associated with greater closeness with God.
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Why is it important?
For many Christians, knowing that God forgives does not always translate into actually experiencing that forgiveness. This study shows how engaging in repentance with God and experiencing absolution from God change over the days following a specific instance of personal wrongdoing. By capturing these processes close to when wrongdoing occurred, the findings provide new insight into how experiencing reconciliation with God unfolds. They may also help clergy, counselors, and others involved in providing support to Christians who may be struggling to resolve disharmony in their relationship with God following personal wrongdoing.
Perspectives
I was especially struck by the fact that reconciliation with God seems to unfold over time. Christians may repent and believe that God forgives them without immediately experiencing that forgiveness or feeling close to God again. Understanding what happens in that space between repentance and experienced forgiveness seems important—not only theoretically, but for understanding how people actually recover from personal wrongdoing and how we might help them move toward renewed relationship with God and greater well-being.
Kaye Cook
Gordon College
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Temporal dynamics of experiencing reconciliation with god after personal wrongdoing: An incident-anchored longitudinal study of U.S. Christian adults., Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, August 2026, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/rel0000632.
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