My summary and thoughts on week three of my group Bible study using Kay Arthur’s “Lord, Only You Can Change Me”…“Blessed are those who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.”
~ Matthew 5:4 ~
Seeing our own sins as God sees them will most certainly bring mourning. There is a big difference being remorseful and being repentant. Remorse is being sorry we got caught; repentance brings with it a change of heart so that we turn away from that sin. Kay calls this “worldly sorrow” vs. “godly sorrow.” A few years ago, I learned to pray that God would give me godly sorrow about my sins, so that I could see them the saw he saw them. It was a scary thing to do, and I began reluctantly. Since that time, God has opened my eyes to show me sins that I didn’t even know were sins, and so show me deeper depths of some of my past sins. (Just be careful not to let this become Satan reminding us of sins God has already forgiven us for!) Realizing the depth of our sins is a great thing to happen to us. In 2 Corinthians 7:6-13, Paul speaks of these two kind of sorrow. Kay says, “Godly sorrow causes us to run to the arms of God, weeping, confessing our sin. And He meets us in that moment, just as He has promised.” Our hearts ought to hurt in realizing how we’ve hurt God. As King David said, all our sins are really against God. Taking that to heart will really change a person’s perspective. No more rationalizing about the reasons why it wasn’t our fault, or the other person did such-and-such first… God has never sinned against us, and it is God we hurt when we sin. We hurt ourselves, too, for sin is what puts distance between ourselves and God.
What about sin within the church? Yes, we are called to love and to forgive, but we often cross the line into enabling sinners to keep on sinning when we look the other way. Kay points out that “…God cannot forgive what we will not confess. And we cannot experience His comfort as long as we walk in rebellion.” Sometimes God calls us to speak the hard truth in love in order to help another believer stay on the narrow path God has before him. Verses Kay quotes on this topic: 1 Corinthians 5 and Matthew 18:15-20.
This week’s study taught me to pray that God would break my heart with the things that break His heart, as I mentioned a few posts ago. Do we weep about the sins of the world, or do we joke and laugh them? This makes me think of television shows, movies, etc–the things that mainstream media seem to think worthy topics for entertainment purposes. Do we laugh along with the world and think lightly of lust, adultery, and the like? Think about how heartbroken Jesus must’ve been as he walked the streets during his time in an earthly body, seeing such pain and heartache and sin all around. “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried…” (Isaiah 53)
