"Godly sorrow worketh repentance."
2 Corinthians 7:10
Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too choice a flower to grow in nature's garden. Pearls grow naturally in oysters, but penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it thee, for human nature's thorns never produced a single fig. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
True repentance has a distinct reference to the Saviour. When we repent of sin, we must have one eye upon sin and another upon the cross, or it will be better still if we fix both our eyes upon Christ and see our transgressions only, in the light of his love.
True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally--as a burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it, as a man who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon the highway; and we shall shun it--shun it in everything--not in great things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as great snakes. True mourning for sin will make us very jealous over our tongue, lest it should say a wrong word; we shall be very watchful over our daily actions, lest in anything we offend, and each night we shall close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, that this day God would hold us up that we may not sin against him.
Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This dropping well is not intermittent. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our growth, and it is so sweet a bitter, that we thank God we are permitted to enjoy and to suffer it until we enter our eternal rest.
C.H. Spurgeon (Morning and Evening)
repentance the word seems offensive to sinners because it is saying “ you aren’t good enough , you need to change”
but it’s a beautiful concept if we hear Jesus and his understanding and how he views repentance
“And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
And he arose, and came to his father. But
when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”
Luke 15:11-24
the understanding there is incredible and changes how we understand repentance
the Fatger never forced the sons to choose either way one remained and the other , demanded his inheritance , chose to leave his fathers house , wasted and blew his inheritance and found himself desolate and alone .
this brought him sorrow as we see there he had a moment of realization and knew he had made the wrong choice and knew it was no Knew fault but his own that he was in that position
he wasn’t overcome with worldly sorrow but it caused him to repent and come to himself again , if he had been successful and continued making money and living as he was he would never have come to that place of repentance and decided in his heart to return home where his Father was
I think that we see that it was when he hit that moment of low and sorrow and realization without excuses or blame for others who wronged us , he took responsibility and realized his own sins and that causes the sorrowful repentance that lead him toward home
but we see the Loving father he was already waiting and earth Cho king anticipating his son who had done all that wrong to be moving toward home to come to that place where he was feeding the slop tonthe pigs and wanting to eat it himself he realized his sinfulness and unclean ness
he saw sin for what it really is a thief and liar , a deceiver and killer of man seeking to steal the inheritance and waste it away and watch us eat slop with the swine ot delights Satan when we live in that frame of mind thinking it’s just poor me everyone’s done me wrong “not my fault I’m gonna head to the club this weekend and get smashed you comin ?! “
repentance is a frame of mind and that moment and season of godly sorrow is what brings us to that place that shows us we’re eating pig food and lying in thier excrement
We find a broken heart and broken and contrite spirit in godly sorrow and that’s what he’s waiting for so he can come running to meet us as we’re feeling ghilty explaining our sins to him , he is overwhelmed with joy just to see us come home to know we finally remembered the truth and where our home really is and most of all we remember who truly and dearly and desperately loves us and waits longing to see us turn towards home in his lovong arms and care
but if we choose to remain a farmers hand and take to that life without repentance we can never experience that moment of embrace because he’s never going to come drag us by the hair fighting against us he needs us to get to this point
David’s psalm 51 shows us the same event as the prodigal a wayward son whod sinned greatly against God his law and Uriah his good and loved man , but was crushed by it and found godly sorrow and repentance and forgiveness
the key is to reach this plateau as the wayward son did realizing and acknowledging his own sins and forgetting about everyone else’s role in his choices he took responsibility like David did
“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.”
Psalm 51:1-5 KJV
what brings all men to repentance is this godly sorrow you posted of here and it’s effect in our heart of hearts
“
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
Psalm 51:17 KJV
A man who acknowledges his sin in Gods presence is going to feel sorrow for tbier sins against him when they don’t shift the blame and it hurts to fail and realize it was actually us that did it all but man , the Fathers love is able to heal every hurt and shame we knew from our own deeds and choices of we’ve been the prodigal and understand that part he is never going to cast us away , but we’re always free to leave of we love the other places