When we read about the prophets in the Old Testament, the apostles in the New Testament, as well as those that have been great Intercessors throughout history, as they grow in their faith they all exhibit what is known in the Greek as Penthos. There isn’t a good direct translation for the word, but it involves having a broken and contrite heart, godly sorrow, holy mourning. They all seem to have a deep and growing understanding of the distance between them and the purity of God. It is this Penthos that leads them to repentance, often with tears.

Quite a difference to the way many of us were brought up, believing that weeping was a sign of weakness. And yet, our Savior wept.

Hebrews 5:7 (NASB)
7 In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.

When we weep over our sin, it shows that we not only understand intellectually our sin, but the depth of it, when it “cuts to the heart”. This was the impact that the Holy Spirit had on the people through Peter in Acts 2.

Acts 2:37-38 (NASB)
37 Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

All this weeping and tears seems rather glum and depressing and yet the scriptures say just the opposite. Contrition and repentance leads to great joy.

Psalm 126:5-6 (NASB)
5 Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.
6 He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.

Having been one who was brought up in the generation where tears were a sign of weakness, I am inclined to hold back the tears when my sin is before me and I begin to understand it deeply in my heart. I pray that God will help me to get over holding back and I can feel even a greater joy in Him.

Always praying for the glory of God,

John 17:1-2;14-17 (NASB)
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,
2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.
14 “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.
16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17 “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

When we approach Easter Sunday, we turn our thoughts to the sacrifice of our Savior and the resurrection of our Lord. I have to remember that it wasn’t the Roman scourging or the crucifixion that ultimately took His life. As bad as those were, it was the combination of being separated from the Father and the enormous weight of all the sin of the world for which He gave His life. It was our sin. It was my sin: past, present, and future. It was the sin that He accepted fully on the cross that led Him to say, “It is finished”.

Then came the ultimate miracle. The resurrection of Jesus was the final proof that He was who He said He was. The scripture record that God left behind as the Word of truth. When we accept that truth, we are transformed. Then as we study and live out that Word, it sanctifies us. It is in John 17, the High Priestly Prayer that tells us what He has in mind for us. He wants us, as long as we are on this earth, to grow His Kingdom.

John 17:20-21 (NASB)
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Hosea 6:3,6 (TLB)
3 Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him, and he will respond to us as surely as the coming of dawn or the rain of early spring.’ ”
6 “I don’t want your sacrifices—I want your love; I don’t want your offerings—I want you to know me.

God demonstrated the relationship that He had with Israel through the life of the prophet Hosea. Hosea was faithful to his wife Gomer, yet she was unfaithful to him. God loved Israel, yet they were unfaithful to Him. Hosea, whose name means “salvation” found his wife, redeemed her, and brought her home again, fully reconciled. What a perfect picture of the mercy and grace that God demonstrates to us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

God’s desire is that we know Him and love Him.

Do we pursue God to know Him with the same desire that He has had to love us first? I know I fall short each and every day. Yet, through prayer I can draw closer, getting to know this amazing God who has reconciled me to Him through Jesus Christ.

Always praying for the glory of God,

Philippians 3:8a,10a
8a: More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord
10a: that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings

Knowing Christ was Paul’s ultimate and uppermost goal. When we run to Christ, pursue him with all our being as the most important goal in our lives, everything else falls into its proper perspective. Our sin is then not something that we believe we need to manage, but rather we cling to Christ to break the power of sin in our lives.

Oh, how I fall short. I try to make it so much more complicated because I want to DO rather than just to KNOW Him. I pray as He continues to sanctify me, that I will rely on His word and our prayer time to know Him more each and every day, counting all other things as loss.

Always praying for the glory of God,