Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Worldly Grief vs. Godly Sorrow


I love laundry days! Laundry day makes me slow down. I will often spend the day sitting in the living room floor folding clothes (which I'm quite good at by the way...I can fold a t-shirt in such a way that it will not have wrinkles in it when you take it out of the dresser to wear). I also use laundry day as an opportunity to catch up on podcast.

I've spent the day today doing laundry and listening to a three part series Matt Chandler did on repentance. In the second part he spent a great deal of time talking about the difference between worldly grief and Godly sorrow.
Worldly grief simply put, says that "I'm sorry for what I've done because now I look bad. What will the people at church say? Will I lose my job because of this decision? Will my wife leave me?"

Godly sorrow is David in Psalm 51 after he's been outed by the prophet Nathan in his sin with Bathsheba. David says in verse four, "Again you, and you only, I have sinned". David understood in this moment that it did not matter what the people in his court thought about him, it didn't matter what the people in his army thought about him, it didn't matter what the prophet thought about him. He understood that it was not against those people that he committed this sin but against God.
I think it is so vitally important that we begin to see ourselves in the way God sees us...rather than being so concerned with what others think of us.

Worldly grief typically comes out of panic. We've been exposed and now we are really really really sorry for what we've done...however, we weren't really really really sorry while we were doing it. Godly sorrow allows us to not be so concerned with what others think of feel about us. Where are we with God?
Godly sorrow will also help us answer this question..."is God okay with me the way I am?" Are you asking the question, "does God love me?" The answer is yes! No doubt! Or are you asking the question, "is God happy about the way I am choosing to live my life?" Let me ask you this question, is your life making God more famous?

Repentance is such an ugly word in today's culture. I know it's not popular and there will be people that see this either from their google reader or because it post as a note on Facebook that will not like this entry because it talks about repentance. Repentance is life giving! It's the running away from what you want for you life and chase hard after the heart of God and what he wants for you. Even if it doesn't "feel right" or "make you happy".

I will close with this...also an unpopular thought. God's will for your life is not your happiness, but His glory. God may call you to do something that makes you miserable (read the book of Hosea). But what if that makes Him more known?

ZS

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