Momentum: Pursuing God’s Blessings Through The BeatitudesSample

How to Mourn

"Have mercy on me, O God." Psalm 51:1

1. State your sin clearly, without excuse or evasion.

“Against you… have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4). A general sense of your failure is not spiritual mourning. This doesn’t move you forward. It just leaves you feeling miserable. Spiritual mourning is mourning over particular sins in your life.

2. Weigh what your sin has done to you.

“My sin is ever before me” (Psalm 51:3). Think of what you might have become by now if this sin had not limited your usefulness to Christ. How has it dampened your worship, dulled your testimony, and kept you at a distance from God? Look at what this sin is costing you. Think of what your life could be if you left this sin behind.

3. Recognize what your sin has done to others.

The people God has placed around you are affected by your sins, even if they remain secret. Your sin makes you less, and that robs others of what they might have received from you. Our sin makes us harder to live with, tougher to work with, and more difficult to love.

4. Look to the cross.

Christ hung there for the sins of real people, in real places, for which there was real punishment. The sin you’re mourning was a sin for which Christ died. But there’s more to the cross than seeing what your sin did to Jesus. See how much you are loved! You’ve been sinning against Christ, and what does he do? He bears your sins. One glimpse of the love of Christ will do more to strengthen your battle against sin than anything else.

For further reading, see Psalm 51:1-4