December 6 – Mourning
Over Sin
2 Peter 2:7, 8 –
"....Lot, a righteous man, was distressed by the filthy lives of
lawless men (for that righteous man, living among them day after day,
was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and
heard)...."
We get a sense of
Lot's predicament from reading Genesis 18, but we don't get the
impactful statement above, until the Apostle Peter spells it out. In
2016, the Western world has grown to resemble Sodom and Gomorrah more
and more. Even more so, society keeps drifting further from God as
it doesn't take sin seriously any more, except in a few aspects. We,
as children of God, should know better, however. If we have been
saved out of our sinful states that were preventing us from drawing
near to God, then we should constantly be growing to hate sin in our
own lives, as well as grieve over the blindly sinful lives of the
people around us.
It is interesting
to note that the righteous in Jerusalem who were sealed in the days
of exiled Israel in Ezekiel 9:4 were those who "grieve and
lament over all the detestable things that are done in it." Since
the nation of Israel was a foreshadowing of the body of Christ, the
direct correlation, then is to sinfulness within the church, the
body. Also, from the hard-hitting book of James in chapter 4:8-10 ,
we are instructed to "come near to God, and he will come near to
you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you
double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to
mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the
Master, and he will lift you in due time."
Wow! It's time again,
for me to examine myself, to see if my heart and attitudes align with
God's desires above. May God change my heart to be broken for the
sinful behavior in my life and in the lives of those around me who
are blind.
