Mourning Over Your Sin

"Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4).

When your sins are forgiven, you are a happy person!
Human sorrow is mourning over some tragic or disappointing turn of events. At such times, believers are assured of God's sustaining and comforting grace (2 Cor. 1:3-4). But when Jesus said, "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." (Matt. 5:4), He was referring to godly sorrow, which is mourning over your sin.
"Mourn" in Matthew 5:4 translates the strongest Greek word used in the New Testament to express grief. It is often used of the passionate lament expressed over the loss of a loved one (e.g., Mark 16:10). David was expressing that kind of sorrow over his sin when he wrote, "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me:my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah." (Ps. 32:3-4). His grief and despair made him physically ill.
At that point David wasn't a happy person, but the blessing godly sorrow brings isn't found in the sorrow itself, but in God's response to it. As Paul said to the Corinthians, "Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." (2 Cor. 7:9-10). Godly sorrow is the path to repentance and forgiveness.
After David confessed his sin he proclaimed with great joy, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile." (vv. 1-2). When you understand that your sins are forgiven, you are a happy person!
How do you deal with your sins? Do you deny and try to hide them, or do you mourn over them and confess them? "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." (Prov. 28:13).
Dr. John MacArthur
Pastor
Grace Community Church