There are times when a disciple of Jesus Christ experiences indescribable sorrow, like Jeremiah’s. “Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow” (Lamentations 1:12, margin). This is not the sorrow of bereavement of failure, but a sorrow that touches at the heart of the atonement of Christ, a sorrow like His. It is a sorrow directly related to sin; in fact, it is produced by sin.
Jeremiah was not responsible for Jerusalem’s sins (and punishment); yet he felt the anguish of those sins, just as Jesus felt anguish for our sins on Calvary. The terrible anguish is a sign that God is at work, for the conflict between sin and holiness always results in bitter pain. Conviction of sin is really “sorrow” for sin, the sorrow that wrongness produces in the human heart. Every disciple will experience this sorrow, not once but many times, sometimes for his own sin, sometimes for the sins of others. Whenever this sorrow comes, it always means revival, whether that revival is personal and local or whether it engulfs a church or a community.
As a disciple, I must recognize the difference between sin’s sorrow and other kinds of sorrow. A feeling of inward heaviness may not be indigestion or alienation or lack of success, but the prompting of the Spirit concerning an undetected sin in my life or in the life of my worshiping community. As with Jeremiah, I may be called upon to feel the pain of the sins of others, as if I were the cause, in order to be a proper intercessor for them. That is the redemptive power of sorrow, and it is always a prelude to the coming blessing of God. Those are the birth pangs of a new day, a new blessing, or a new tide from God. “As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons” (Isaiah 66:8).
“The Lord is righteous; for I have rebelled against His command; hear now, all peoples, and behold my pain” (Lamentations 1:18).
Daily with the King 