February 5 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Devotional

Do you cry easily? Some people cry when they read a good book, watch a sad movie or listen to stirring music. Everyone reacts differently to what they read, hear or see. What may move you deeply may not touch another person in the same manner.

Every child of God should weep out of concern for the church and the salvation of God’s people. The pain of seeing people stray has reduced many believers to tears. The author of Psalm119 vocalizes the hurt he feels in his heart when he writes, “Rivers of water run down from my eyes because men do not keep Your law.” (119:136) Although Nehemiah has a high position in the king’s court, his love for the church reduces the importance of everything else in his life. He weeps when he sees how the city of God lies in ruins (Neh 1:4). The returned exiles weep when confronted with their own failures. It became difficult for the leaders to get them to stop crying (Neh 8:9–12).

True grief brings us to our knees in the realization that we need a Saviour. The tears may flow as we are overwhelmed by how sinful we are and how gracious and merciful the Lord is to us! How many times have we wept when confronted with our own neglect? True reformation should make us weep in the recognition that all our sins, all our neglect, and our lack of zeal and commitment dishonour the Lord. Have our children seen us weep because God’s Word convicted us of our sins? Quite often we don’t weep because we are blind to the seriousness of our own sins, or we are complacent, or our hearts are hardened.

It isn’t embarrassing to cry. When God renews us to repentance and revives our souls we grieve from the heart with a godly sorrow for sin. With a contrite heart we look for forgiveness in the blood of Christ (Canons of Dort, Chapter V article 7).

Grief does not stand alone. We shouldn’t lose sight of the faithfulness, goodness, love and grace of the Lord. Awareness of having grievously sinned against the Lord should never exclude who we are in Christ. Our sins are great but the forgiveness we receive through Christ overwhelms us with joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength!