Daily Devotional for Thursday, October 15
The Repentance
“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death,” 2 Corinthians 7:10.
Have you ever caught your child in the act of doing something, or found evidence that he had done it, confronted him, only to have him wail, “I’m sorry!” The truth is, you have probably done that yourself. What are you really sorry about? The truth is that the sorrow is over getting caught or the impending consequences. Rarely is the sorrow actually over the fact that we have hurt our parents by disobeying them. Had we not been caught, we would have never bothered to say we were sorry.
Of course, God never has to catch us in wrong because He knows we are going to do it before we actually do it. He was there when the sinful thought blossomed into physical sin. In God’s case, our sorrow often involves attempts at dealmaking. “Oh Lord, I will not do that anymore if You just let me escape the consequence this one time!”
That type of sorrow is not godly repentance; that is a selfish desire to avoid consequences. If we are lost, failing to see that our sin is against God will lead us to death. If we are saved, failing to see that our sin is against God will never allow us to enjoy our relationship with God.
True repentance is about understanding who our sin really affects, and whom we have failed. Our sin is against God and God only. David provided an example of this in Psalm 51:4. David knew exactly who his sorrow was toward; do you? If you are only sorry that you were caught in sin, that is not repentance. If you are sorry that you have hurt your Heavenly Father, then that is repentance.
Just a Thought
We may hurt ourselves and others with our sin, but the real offense belongs to God, and it is He whom we have failed.
Wally Fry