Godly Sorrow

You may have been sorry about the same thing for eleven years, and nothing has changed except your opinion of yourself. Someone else reading this said sorry last week, meant it, and had forgotten about it two days later. This verse is for both of you, though it will not do the same work in each of you.

Paul had written the Corinthians a letter that hurt them. He is honest about how that sat with him: "though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent." What settled the matter was what happened afterward, and he lists it: "what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal." Every item on that list is something you could see from across a room.

Then comes the verse: "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." The awkward middle phrase, "not to be repented of," describes a change of direction that nobody ever wishes afterward they had skipped.

Two men were sorry in the same week. Judas "repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver," and he said out loud, "I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood." Then he "went and hanged himself." Peter "went out, and wept bitterly," and within three days he was back with the other disciples. Both men were truly sorry, so sorrow on its own did not decide anything. What mattered was where each man's sorrow led him.

So stop measuring your sorrow by how bad it feels, and ask what it has produced, whether you have carried it for eleven years or for two days. Godly sorrow turns toward God and keeps walking, and it leads to life. If yours has only turned inward, you are invited to bring it to Him. Peter found the risen Lord waiting for him, and the same Lord is waiting for you.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 129 is Help for Weakness (Romans 8:26).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two