Lamentations 1:20a

"See, O Lord, that I am in distress; My soul is troubled; My heart is overturned within me, For I have been very rebellious."

The writer of this book of the Bible (believed to be Jeremiah) knew how to lament over sin against a Holy God, even when it was not necessarily and solely his own. Here he cries out to God for the wickedness of Jerusalem's abandonment of Him and its resulting destruction by the Babylonian armies, lead by Nebuchadnezzar but also under the watchful hand of the Lord.

Sin is distressing (and creates stress), it's troubling (causing havoc), and it's disheartening (burdening the soul). Or should I state that "it should be"? And sin is always an act of rebellion against Him.

One of the first acts of repentance for any sin is an acknowledgment that I have sinned (personal responsibility and not someone else's). It should then produce what the writer of Lamentations felt when acknowledging Jerusalem's sin, and that's brokenheartedness. Jesus said that those who mourn are blessed (cf. Matthew 5:4). Mourn for what? Mourn over sin. And o' how rarely I do that, I mean really mourn. And the reason I don't is because I've taken God's payment (Jesus' blood) for my sin and His grace for granted. And that, too, is sinful. But it's also because I don't often see the consequences of God's wrath poured out as a result of my sin. He could destroy me in a nanosecond, just like He did Jerusalem. But His mercies are new every morning (cf. Lamentations 3:22-23). If I considered what the outcomes of my sin should have realized, then perhaps I would be more mournful.

Today I pray that I might know and remember that my sin is not only ugly, but also deserving of an affliction impossible to bear, but there is One who bore it for me. Perhaps then I can be comforted, and then I can move toward final repentance - changing my ways.