Good Grief!

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.

2 Corinthians 7:10

Does God want you to be happy? 

You might be surprised to find out the answer is...not always. But this is an unavoidable truth of the verse above. It tells us that there are two types of sorrow. One is from God and is actually a good gift from Him. There are times that God wants you to experience pain and grief. Let's see why. 

Godly sorrow causes pain in order to turn you away from your sin. It leads you to repent of your sin and experience the salvation of being set right with God. So it causes you grief for a period of time in order to work good for you in the end. We shouldn't regret experiencing this kind of sorrow. 

But our world, on the other hand, is full of another kind of sorrow that leads to death. It's a sorrow from which there is no escape because it finds no hope in Jesus as its cure. When people are trapped in sorrow without hope they begin to despair and in their despair they reach for the only comfort they know...more sin. The momentary relief their sin affords them is all the hope they have left. So, far from rescuing them from their sins, this kind of grief drives them to reach for more sin in order to cope with the pain their sin has caused. What a mind numbing cycle!

So understand that not all sorrow or grief is bad. Some of it is actually a gift of God sent to turn you back to Him. Make up your mind to find your hope in God. Don't allow grief to harden you in your sin. And think about that lost friend of yours. Confronting them with their sin may cause them a little grief at first, but could it lead to their salvation in the end? If so, it is most definitely worth it. 

How blessed is the ailment that sends me fleeing to You, Jesus, my cure! Though it makes my soul feverish with pain and grief, yet I will bless the day this sorrow found me for it led me to my only true salvation. Your godly sorrow came to bless and not to curse. It led me to salvation and left no trace of regret in its wake.

A Verse that Could Change the World

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

2 Corinthians 5:15

Your life doesn't belong to you. 

This is true of any creature. God created you, therefore you belong to God. But this is especially true of believers for we were redeemed at a price. Christ purchased you back for Himself by His precious blood. So, you belong to Him. 

But it goes beyond that. At the moment you received your redemption, you placed your faith in Jesus which requires a kind of dying to yourself. Paul says that "one died for all, and therefore all died" (2 Cor 5:14). Becoming a Christian involves a spiritual participation in the death of Christ. You were crucified with Him. You died to your old way of life and experienced a type of spiritual resurrection (not to be confused with the literal resurrection you await) that enables you to live a new life here on earth now. That's why Paul says, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Cor 5:17). Your old, selfish ways of living are gone. A new way of living, living for God, has come. 

Paul puts it succinctly in verse fifteen above. "[Jesus] died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." If every Christian would live by this one verse, our world would be a very different place. Which brings me back to where I started. 

Your life doesn't belong to you. You can't live for yourself any more. Christians don't live for the American Dream, or for more money, or for our own happiness, or for our country, or even for our families. Though a few of these are lofty and honorable none of them measure up to what God has called you to. They are all less than what we strive for. They are less than the Christian goal of living for Jesus. 

You live for Jesus. Your life belongs to Him. Your every breath and every day should be aimed at obeying and living for Him. Your life isn't yours to do with as you please. You are God's servant! Find out what He wants you to do, what He created you for, and give yourself to it wholly.

Go Ahead and Jump

Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”

Mark 10:28-31

People often talk about the Christian life as a leap of faith. While it's true that the decision to turn away from your sin and surrender your life to Jesus is like a leap of faith, the truth is that it doesn't end there. The Christian life isn't just one leap of faith, it's a series of leaps of faith based on God's Word. And the more often you jump the more comfortable you get with it. 

Think about a flying trapeze act. The trapeze artist swings on a bar high above the circus. After several swings to gain momentum, she lets go and flies through the air performing tricks (flips, twirls, etc...) only to be caught by a "catcher" hanging from another swinging trapeze bar. These tricks are done as high as 40 feet in the air, but you don't think they started off that way, do you? No! They start learning at lower heights, flying across small distances, performing simple or no tricks. Only after practicing for many months or years do they gain the ability and confidence to perform the big tricks so high up in the air. 

It's the same with us as believers. The more we take the small leaps of faith, the more confidence we gain that God will always catch us. So, if we will only discipline ourselves to make the small leaps, to obey God in the everyday things, then before we know it God will call us out to greater heights. That's where the thrill is in the Christian life. That's where God can really use us. 

So many believers are bored with the Christian faith and have no idea why. But I know why! It's because they have very little faith. They are still playing on the kiddie swings. They've never been willing to step out of their comfort zone and obey God. They got saved and then refused to take any more leaps of faith from that point on. So their walk with the Lord is stunted. Their unwillingness to risk anything for God prevents them from going on any great spiritual adventures or experiencing any great spiritual victories. Think about it. Great victories require beating larger foes, and that can only happen if you have the faith to step onto the battlefield with that foe. 

Fear of risking big things for God will keep you from receiving big blessings from God. Take a leap of faith today. Obey some command in Scripture that you've been ignoring or follow a prompting of the Spirit. Give a big gift to your church. Talk to someone about Jesus, even if it means they avoid you from now on. Finally tackle that sin in your life. If you know God is with you and that He is pleased by what you're doing, then no risk is too big. So, go ahead and jump.