Momentum: Pursuing God’s Blessings Through The BeatitudesSample

You Never Move Forward Without This

"Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death." 2 Corinthians 7:10

You may not be able to tell the difference between grief that leads to salvation and grief that produces death in another person, but you can tell the difference in your own heart.

The Bible tells us the story of Saul, the first king of Israel, who was a high achiever with a twisted heart. Saul led his army into battle and then took plunder for himself and for his men. He cheated, deceived, and stole, and then he lied to cover it up. But later he was found out.

Samuel confronted him with the truth, and Saul had nowhere to hide. So Saul confessed, and said he was sorry: “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord” (1 Samuel 15:24). Then he said something else to Samuel, “I have sinned; yet honor me now before the elders of my people” (15:30).

Saul appears sorry, but he would have continued doing what he was doing if he could have. He says he is sorry, but his focus is on damage control. There has not been a change of heart.

Spiritual mourning comes from the heart, and that’s why it is the key to tackling what we call “habitual sins.” These are sins that keep recurring in a person’s life year after year. Why do we know so much of habitual sin? Because we know so little about mourning.

This is how you change and move forward in the Christian life. You never move forward without spiritual mourning. You can’t. God’s kindness leads us to repentance, not to presumption.

For further reading, see 1 Samuel 15:17-31