Day Three: Godly Grief
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)
We are all familiar with the ugly pattern of sin. You have just sinned again and you feel the weight of what you’ve done. You promise yourself you will never engage in that kind of sinful behavior again. You wake up in the morning with new resolve, but you just can’t shake the nagging feeling of guilt. But still, over time those feelings of shame and guilt begin to dwindle and fade, and as they do, so too does your resolve. Before you know it you have sinned again and the cycle starts anew. It is just like the Proverb says: “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly” (Proverbs 26:11). Apart from the grace of godly sorrow this cycle will continue. It is only when we are granted a godly grief—a grief that hates sin more than its consequences—that we will pursue lasting change.
Father, only godly sorrow will do. I want godly sorrow for my sin, so help me to see my sin the way you do. Rescue me from a worldly and self-centered grief that only produces more death. Deliver me to a grief that cries with David, “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4). I trust that through the finished work of Christ you meet my repentance with grace and forgiveness. Lord, I plead with you to give me the painful grace of godly sorrow and repentance, today and every day. Amen.
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Mike Leake is associate pastor of First Baptist Church of Jasper, IN. He and his wife, Nikki have 2 children (Isaiah and Hannah). Mike is the author of Torn to Heal and regularly blogs at http://mikeleake.net
I was sharing last week with my students that the cycle of guillt and shame is supposed to end in Christ. We studied psalm 101 where David commits to eliminating all wickedness from the land. The problem is, David himself will reveal himself to be wicked.
This cycle of promising God “I’ll never do it again” ends when we die to ourselves and live in Christ. “It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives in me.” We simply cannot end the cycle. Christ alone ends the cycle.
I need godly grief. I can’t get this or obtain this on my own. I keep on repeating the same sexual sins and I can’t truly be a Christian and keep on doing these things. Can a true Christian’s guilt dwindle and fade? In other words can a true Christian have worldly grief? Right now I’m numb and I don’t feel anything. I don’t seem to have any feeling. I feel dirty and guilty and shameful and then it fades a little but when I commit the same sexual sin it comes back in full vengeance then I’m fearful of coming to God again believing that He will reject me. I run away from Him but I know deep inside that that is not good.
It’s like I lost the desire to read God’s Word, to pray and cry out to Him to give me godly grief because I feel like He refuses to hear me and I say to myself sometimes “what’s the use, God is not going to hear me.” I’m really depressed right now and I feel very empty. And if I cry out to the Lord to give me godly grief, I wonder do I truly mean it? I mean since I don’t really feel anything and since I feel numb do I really truly mean that I want godly grief? I’m so confused and I feel like it’s all over for me. I need help, I really do.