GodSprings - 01, March, 2017

Am I Ready to Cry Out My Sins?

Blessed are the those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Matthew 5:4

In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church’s integrity problem is in the misconception “that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior.” He goes on to say, “It is revival without reformation, without repentance.”

We all have longed to run away or flee from sorrow to the place of comfort. The paradox of this beatitude is, it says, “Happy are the sad”. We never thought this to be true. This is absolutely contrary to what we know. What Jesus says is opposite of our world’s philosophy wherein the whole structure of our life, our running behind the pleasure madness, and the enthusiasm expended in living it up are expression and desire to avoid pain.

Jesus shows a new approach to life. There is only one kind of sorrow that brings life. It is godly sorrow, which leads us to repentance. The issue here is not being sorry because you’re lonely. Not being sorry because you are discouraged or disappointed. Not being sorry because somebody died or because you feel guilty. It is being sorry because you are a sinner.

Yesterday we saw v.3 which says, blessed are the poor in spirit. What does that poor mean? It is a sense of being spiritually bankrupt. When we take these two verses together we can say that if v.3 of which we dealt about yesterday was the intellectual part, then v.4 is the emotional part.

David after his terrible sin with Bathsheba he mourned so deeply in Psalm 51 that it wrenched his soul to its very depths. The happiness doesn’t come in the mourning. It comes in what God does in response to it. David had experienced the tears of rejection, frustration and defeat. But nothing ever broke the heart of David to tears like his own sin. And then God comforted him, and he said “Happy is the man whose transgression is forgiven”.

This lent can we take little time to mourn over our own sinfulness and receive God's comfort?