Got Sorrow?

For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. [2 Corinthians 7.10]

Sorrow is not a bad thing... at least, not the sorrow that leads us away from sin and to repentance.

The scary part of the passage above is sorrow that lacks repentance. Spiritual death is no laughing matter.

There is a problem with our society today. We have developed the idea that if there is sorrow in our lives, then we are just not living up to our potential. While that all sounds well and fine, it, at its core is self-worship. We are heavily indoctrinated today to believe that everything should be for our happiness.

The fact is, we are all human, and, as such, riddled with sin. Sin brings sorrow. Sorrow should bring us then to repentance. To simply suggest that we need not be sorry is ridiculous. Sorrow should be seen as the springboard to repentance and then restoration. But sadly, that is largely not the case today... and even more sadly, it is this way in the Church.

Sorrow must be dealt with we all agree. But how we deal with sorrow determines our outcome.

Today we deal with sorrow in many ways. We take drugs. We believe we deserve better. We avoid conversation that brings sorrow. We condemn anyone who makes us sad. We approach hardships with all kinds of easing remedies. But rarely do we repent.

The Church, of all places, should be the one place that sorrow is most accurately dealt with. And, this is happening in most. But if the Church is just putting religious lipstick on worldly solutions, then we are no better off in our sorrow, but quite the worse. The litmus test for good sorrow, is repentance. If there is no repentance, then sorrow is not Godly sorrow but worldly sorrow that leads to spiritual death!

We all need sorrow in our lives because sorrow indicates sin! AND, that sorrow should lead us to repentance. But if it does not, then something is askew.

Got sorrow? Repent.

Father help us all to see the blessing that sorrow is to our lives. It shows us our need to repent - and repentance leads to restoration - much needed restoration.