Are you grieved over your sin? Do you frequently pour your heart out to God in repentance? Alan Redpath said, “God will never plant the seed of His life upon the soil of a hard, unbroken spirit. He will only plant that seed where the conviction of His Spirit has brought brokenness, where the soil has been watered with the tears of repentance as well as the tears of joy.”
When I was a little girl, I remember being in the classroom of our little country church in Kentucky listening to my Sunday school teacher describe sins such as murder and stealing. I sat there with my buttons popping with pride (probably on a dress my mother made me wear!) believing I was without sin. At least I never did those things, the sins that really “mattered.” We know that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child (Proverbs 22:15). But as an adult, am I not guilty of the same thought process? Do I watch the world around me and think, “I don’t do those things.” How dangerous it is to compare myself to anybody or anything other than Christ. He is the perfect spotless One. His standard of holiness is the only one worth striving to attain.
May I find myself convicted of every unholy thought, motive or act through the power of His Word and His Spirit working within me. With eagerness, may I bow to soak His feet with tears of repentance, that He may turn them into tears of joy.