Lord, Pick Me! Series

When was the last time we wept over our sin? Most of the time we are thinking this way: “It’s not that bad.” “I didn’t do what she did.” It’s been too long for me. I’m asking God to break my heart over my sin – to bring literal tears to my eyes.

We want to get to the solution side too quickly. We don’t’ want to do the hard work of mourning over our sins. We teachers of the word of God even apply the salve to a wound that is not yet free from infection. We don’t want to make anyone feel too uncomfortable. We too quickly get to the grace and short-circuit the work of God in our souls.

But the cancer can’t be healed unless we deal with it deeply. There is bad news about each of us. We are more depraved – more dark – than we can possibly know.

Mourn = deep grief and remorse, a complete despair that laments over sin the way someone mourns the death of a family member or close friend.

James is not condemning legitimate laughter or joy but rather the flippant, trivial, worldly, self-centered, sensual kind.

Joel 2:12 says, “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”

Even a committed Christian can slip into a casual attitude toward sin, presuming too much on God’s forgiving and merciful nature.

We’ve got to recognize our own spiritual poverty, to admit our desperate need of God’s help, and to submit to his commanding will for our lives. The more we see God as He really is, glorious and holy, the more clearly we see ourselves as we really are, sinful and depraved and in need of grace.

3. … tremble at His word.

But this is the one to whom I will look: he who… trembles at My word.”

chared {khaw-rade’} - trembling, fearful, afraid

Trembling. “Wait. I thought nothing is as sweet as the word of God!”

There are two kinds of trembling. One makes people hate God and run from Him. The other affects the heart and brings obedience for those who reverence God. God is looking for people who will listen to Him when He speaks.

You say you have a reverence for God? But if you disregard His word, you show that really take Him lightly.

You who tremble at His word, hear the word of the LORD.

Isaiah 66:5 (HCSB)

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How can I become more broken? Three words:

1. Behold: see the Lord.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.

Isaiah 6:1 (ESV)

2. Compare: confess my sin.

And one [seraphim] called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Isaiah 6:3, 5 (ESV)

3. Receive: seek my cleansing.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”