Matthew 5:3-11
The Sermon on the Mount has been referred to as the highest call to moral and ethical living. Some even dismiss it as being completely unrealistic and believe that it refers to the second coming of Christ. However, it is obvious that Jesus meant for this to be the standard for living the Christian life. Let me tell you something you already know: We do not measure up to this standard. That is probably the point. We could never meet these standards in our own strength. We have to rely on Christ.
The verse that I want to focus on today is Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." At first glance, questions might arise in your heart: Why would God want us to mourn? Does this mean if I have a lot of terrible things happen to me that cause me to mourn that I will be more blessed in heaven? After close consideration of this verse and the personal way that God has used it in my life, I do not believe that is the case. What I do believe that it means is that God wants us to mourn over our sin. Kay Arthur says "For only those who mourn shall be comforted. the blessedness does not come in the mourning; it comes in the results of the mourning..."
When was the last time you truly mourned over your own personal sin? Or better yet, when was the last time you mourned over the sins of our nation? The word for "mourn" in this passage is "pentheo" in the Greek which literally means "to mourn for or to lament as a way of life". Has there ever come a time that you have truly had Godly sorrow over sin?
It is time for us to mourn over our sin. It is time to cry out to God and ask Him to break our hearts to the things that break His. He is holy, holy, holy. Sin is completely opposite to His character and yet sometimes my mind is filled with sinful thoughts that I should truly be broken over and I'm not.
My challenge for us today is to do something I did many years ago when I first studied this verse. I asked God to allow me to feel the way that my sin made Him feel. I prayed this prayer after coming out of a terrible season of sin, so brokenness just does not seem like the right word to describe what happened next. I could literally not get low enough on the floor. I wept bitterly and I could not even utter any words other than, "I am so sorry". And I truly was.
I have no idea how long I cried out to God, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was in that room in Jacksonville, Alabama picking me up off the floor surrounding me with His loving arms. I had truly experienced Godly sorrow and the blessing of His presence followed.
Join me today in asking God to break our hearts over the things that break His. Allow yourself to mourn over your own sin as well as the sins of our nation.
2 comments:
I love Corinthians 7:10-11 which speak of the realities that follow having godly sorrow.
"Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done."
Thanks for sharing this powerful challenge to feel godly sorrow over sin!
It is a shame that, in our society today, we teach our children and have evidently convinced ourselves that "self-esteem" (pride) equals self-worth (our true value). In our zealous efforts to help ourselves and others overcome any insecurities associated with low "self-esteem," we have somehow also belittled the value of true repentance or sorrow for wrong we do to others, intentionally or unintentionally. This unrepentant attitude carries over into our relationship to God. It's always easy to look around and see someone who "sins more" and think "Whew." I'm afraid we are cheating ourselves and our descendants out of experiencing the amazing cleansing and closeness to God that can only come after the pouring out of our hearts in godly sorrow for our sin.
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