“So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor.” (James 4:7-10 NLT)
As a follow up to yesterday’s post I wanted to share a few more thoughts related to how vital it is to keep short accounts with God. In the verses above James uses what I consider to be a key term in our battle with ourselves as it relates to sin – HUMBLE! Humility isn’t self-abasement, it’s accurate self-assessment.
The Philosopher Socrates gives us sound advice when he wrote: “Know thyself!” A very helpful way to understand how that works is to do what David wrote in Psalm 139:23-24: We need to allow the Lord to: “Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
Keeping an open invitation to the Lord to keep our mind and heart in check as it relates to our thought life, is a huge first step in keeping our life in proper alignment with the Lord’s purposes. What we think about comes about, so, to the extent we keep our thoughts aligned with the Lord’s plans, to that extent we’ll allow the Spirit to keep us moving in the right direction.
However, a key element in that process is not only knowing when, but how to come to terms with the sin the Lord reveals in our mind and/or heart. That’s where I believe spiritual mourning comes in. Colin S. Smith describes it this way: “Spiritual mourning is the godly sorrow that produces repentance, and it is blessed because it leads to life. The more you have of this kind of mourning in your life, the more blessed you will be.”
To allow ourselves to mourn spiritually is not unlike mourning in any other way. When we lose a loved one our mourning often initiates with the sorrow we feel because of our loss. We think about occasions when we shared happy memories, things that were positive, good, and may even bring a smile to our face.
But, depending on the nature of the relationship, it may also surface regrets based on what we did or didn’t do in our relationship with that person. In my memories of my parents, I have many very endearing memories of them and some very disappointing memories – not only because they disappointed me, but the many times I disappointed them, in many ways I didn’t even realize until they’d passed.
Spiritual mourning needs to include a realistic assessment of where we currently are in our walk with the Lord. If we’re just starting our journey, we’ll likely fail more frequently in obvious sin choices we’re making because our walk with the Lord is all new and tends to have the messiness of newness because of our still strong attachment to the world; however, gratefully, over time as the tentacles of Satanic oppression lighten, we can focus on giving ourselves more fully, which will entail letting go of some things that are more specific to whatever season we’re in.
The bottom line in whatever season we find ourselves is repenting of anything the Lord makes clear is standing between us and Him. Mourning that separation and loosening our grip on whatever He shows us in favor of our love for Jesus.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 