In our continuing series on Issues of the Heart, this week Stephen Squire shared with us about the complexities of sorrow. 2 Corinthians 7:10 & 11, says:
Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.
It’s caused me to reflect on the different kinds of sorrow we feel. There’s this kind of sadness, or depression, that weighs heavy on our heart. Things that are caused by the circumstances around us, or our own failings.
But i’ve never considered that godly sorrow has a positive impact. I’d always simply assumed that sorrow, or feeling intensely sad had no positive outcome.
But as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, there is a sorrow that leads to repentance, leading to salvation, and bringing transformation in what we live for and what we choose. Sorrow that brings repentance moves our lives to action – it arouses a passion, a readiness, an alertness, for the things of God’s heart. How I long for a godly sorry that transforms my perspective.
In the songHosanna, the bridge goes:
Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdom’s cause
As I walk from earth into eternity
What a challenge and a conviction – to have our hearts beating to the same pulse of God’s. Indeed, break my heart for what breaks yours God. That everything I am is for your kingdom’s cause.
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This was the third of our series on Issues of the Heart. You can find the entire series at the BCEC Sermon Page or listen to last week’s sermons directly – Anger.
Hosanna (iTunes store link), by Hillsong, is taken from the album Saviour King.