Verse of the day: Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those
who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Happy are those who mourn. How
can we be mournful, yet be happy at the same time? Sadly, this is something we
see very little of in our “modern day” Christianity. Unfortunately, what we see
today is a Christian culture that spends too much time justifying sinful actions,
and telling us that we are being judgmental if we point out, in love, the fact
that they are going down a path that is leading them away from Christ. First,
can I say that we do no one any favors by allowing them to go down a path of
destruction without at least, in love, trying to help them back onto the right
path? Secondly, as individual born again believers, we are personally
responsible for how we live out our relationship with the Lord, and some day we
will give account. With that said, we must always be mindful of how we react to
our own sinfulness. We sometimes spend too much time watching out for, and
criticizing others’ sinful actions, but overlook our own, becoming blind to our
own sinful shortcomings. Jesus is telling us that a happy Christian is one that
truly and honestly mourns because of sin. When do we usually sorrow over our
sin? Usually it is when we get caught and suffer a consequence. Only then, if
we are not trying to justify it, do we mourn; but our mourning is generally not
for what we did, but because we are now suffering a consequence(s) and have
been publicly shamed by our actions. True mourning over sin comes from a heart
that mourns when we know we have sinned, but no one but us and God has seen it.
True mourning is when we are sorrowful for that which we have done in secret;
even though we may not have been caught, and may not likely be caught, but know
that we have sinned against God. This type of mourning must carry over to that
sin which is publicly exposed as well. True mourning is when we find out about
someone else’s fall, and rather than spread it in gossip, we tearfully go to
prayer for them and do what we can to help them be reconciled to the Lord by
offering to get into God’s Word with them or be accountability for them, if
they are willing. The happiness in this comes in knowing that we have a
Comforter, the Holy Spirit (Jn 14:16, 26-27), who not only convicts us when we
sin, but also reminds us of God’s grace and forgiveness for those who truly
repent and confess their sins. True repentance will not come without us first
having a truly sorrowful heart for what we have done. The Apostle Paul wrote
this to the believers at Corinth, in 2 Corinthians 7:8-10, in response to their
repentance over what he addressed in his first letter to them, concerning their
sinful behavior, “For even if I
made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it. For
I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, though only for a while. 9 Now
I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to
repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer
loss from us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to
salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”
For a child of God, there should be no greater comfort than to know that the
peace that we have between us and our Father, because of Jesus, has been
restored because of God’s unmerited grace and forgiveness, when we truly mourn
and repent of our sinful ways. Jesus reminds us in John 14:26-27 that the
Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will teach us and remind us; and one of the things
that we will be reminded of is that in Jesus Christ we will have true peace.
This, my brothers and sisters, is one of the ingredients for true happiness.
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