Sighing and Crying over Sin

 What kinds of things cause you to sigh and to cry? I know we sigh when things don't go as we want them to go. It takes the air out of our sails for a while until we regroup. When we have a loss of a loved one, we often have tears that flow. Even when we get sick, or we have significant pain, we come to the point of sighing and crying. However, when was the last time we sighed and cried over our sins or over the sins of our country? That is important to God.

When God was about to destroy Jerusalem, He sent an angel through the city in advance of the destruction. (Ezekiel 9:4)  He told him to put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sighed and cried over all the abominations that were being done in the city. Then, God spared those people from the destruction He was sending on the land. That shows us what is important to God.

I recently talked with a person who was having a lot of trouble. This person told me of many sins they had committed, even though they said they were a believer. In each case these were very serious sins, but they spoke of them very matter of factly. I was shocked by these revelations, but they were unphased. When I had a chance to speak, I told them I John 1:9 tells us that we need to confess our sins, and God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

I explained that to confess means to say what God would say about our sins, and then to repent of them, so we don't continue in those things. I am sure that when we think of the gravity of our sins, we should sigh and cry as we confess. The same is true as we see the sins in our country. We should confess them to God and ask for His intervention, as we sigh and cry over them. I believe that should be our response to the sins in our lives and the sins we see around us every day. 

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Ezekiel 10-12.