A Good Kind of Sad

 A Good Kind of Sad

 

I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.

JOB 42.6

 

God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

MATTHEW 5.4

 

The kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.

2 CORINTHIANS 7.10

 

Usually when someone is sad, we try to cheer the person up. We don’t like anyone around us to feel sad, and we avoid anything that would make us feel down. But Jesus said there’s a good kind of sadness. What kind of sadness is actually good for us?

It is good for us when we begin to really see the sin in our lives and then, instead of minimising it or excusing it or comparing it to the sin of others, we become deeply sad over it. When we see what an offence our sin is to God, out of our love for him we become truly sorry about our sin. This is the kind of sadness that is part of real repentance. This kind of sorrow puts us on a pathway toward genuine, deep, lasting happiness.

Can you remember the last time you were truly sad about the sin in your life? Have you ever really been sad about your wrong actions, your ungodly reactions to other people, your sinful attitudes? Perhaps you need to spend some time alone with God asking him to show you what sins are holding you back from living the way he wants you to live. Godly sorrow over sin leads to freedom from the hold that sin has on our lives. Only then can we be really, really happy.