God leads a person to conviction of sin which makes a person repent. I don't think you can please God until after you have repented. Our lives are dead in sin until we have repented and have been born again and are alive with Christ. That's why we need to repent before we can please God.
Exactly, what does repentance mean to you?
You use the word, 'leads', (as do most Christians nowadays), which I have come to see is often just support of the notion of freewill. Christians don't want God to cause them, or command them to do a thing, but to ask them, to show them nicely, to stand back and let them decide. (Decide? --yes, they do, but God causes it, either way they choose.) But when it comes to salvation, God is pretty clear the heart of the unsaved is wicked at the core. It will not choose him.
You seem to posit some kind of neither this nor that, neither regenerated, but not altogether as the Bible describes the sinful nature --can I insert here, an idea? We know that the Spirit of God can do as it pleases. Is it possible for it to convict to some degree, to cause a desire for good, for righteousness, and a sensitivity to sinfulness, and to specific wrongdoings, yet not to do so savingly --that is, to leave the condemned still condemned, and all the goodness shown to it still leaving those things understood ACCORDING TO the sin nature? Yes, I think it is possible. But the work of the Spirit in regenerating the Elect is a different thing. No longer does the Elect think in the way he used to.
You claim, as do many, that it was YOUR repentance, and others talk about submission, relinquishing, the cry for help, the accepting of Christ into their heart, and so on. All, of them, if true, wonderful things, but of no account if it is not God doing it in them! If it is not God doing it in them (no, not leading them, but causing it directly --the work of the Holy Spirit) then it is the sinful nature doing it, which is falseness. The change came before you knew it.
However, I am not averse to the notion (and some of my Reformed brothers will be upset with me for this, haha!) that God, who not only 'invented' time, but also 'invented' cause-and-effect, and indeed, reality itself comes from him, can by the Spirit do things in ways that to us seem gradual, and even seem caused by our changes (our decisions) which somehow we insist are ours alone --'not caused by God or they are not real', we say-- and thus the Spirit effects that regeneration. We don't see it 'take hold' until we are awake enough to notice we have been given new life. We get the cause-and-effect wrong, but we do see the effect.
What I meant was perserverance of the saints needs to be true to be of any help or else am I not deceiving myself? I can't and won't believe it if it's just to ease worry, and I don't see it in the Bible.
Love of Jesus is one reason to live a godly life, but fear of God is also important to live godly. Both parts are needed. If we love Jesus, but don't fear God we might not make the right choices when it really matters. Of course our motivation, our fear of the Lord and our love for God is a gift from the Holy Spirit. We can't take credit for that.
'Perseverance of the Saints' is not an instruction, nor an operative principle. It is just a description, that puts the credit where it is due. The operative principle is the Spirit of God in us, which is there because God has determined to bring us to Heaven to be with him. The instruction is to obey and to continue to pursue Christ.
The fear of the Lord can be a couple of things --but my reference, if I have it right what you were responding to, was the fear of hell. Fear of God is a good thing. Fear of hell may be a useful motivator, but not in itself a good thing otherwise. You are right, we can't take credit for the fear of the Lord, but the gift is more than simply operating on our thoughts and intelligence / motivations/ leaving it entirely up to us to choose to obey. "The love of Christ compels us" may even be a reference --a sort of beautiful play on words-- to the compulsion of the Spirit of God within us. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing. It is for THIS that we are made, not for the purpose of deciding on our own upon receiving the right instructions and information.
Well, you could say God reacts when we repent. But it's also God that leads us to repent. This is the chain I see:
1. God leads us to believe the Bible.
2. We are convicted of sin.
3. We repent.
4. God gives us the Holy Spirit, we are regenerated/born again.
5. We live a new life with Jesus.
Could it happen differently? I have heard testimonies of people being born again at instant, seemingly be skipping both 1, 2 and 3, so what do I know. I don't set rules for God, if He chooses to give someone the new birth at instant, He will.
I've heard testimonies of people who at some point realize what has happened to them, and who they belong to, 1,2 and 3 following. The only thing that to me makes sense, is this principle, and all the Scriptures that drive it: The Gospel is Christ. Not us. It is about Christ. Not about us. It is for Christ, from Christ, given by Christ. We are brought to Christ by the Grace of Christ. Not by freewill. It is Grace from beginning to end, the work of God.
Our faith is weak, silly, ignorant and self-important. God's gift, the Holy Spirit within us, is NOT. THAT is the source of salvific faith --to whatever degree we have it, it is entirely real, wise, reliable and understanding of the things of God. It will not fail us because
God has determined to keep us, if indeed we belong to him.