When I was a boy I can remember times when I would get caught doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. Sometimes it was eating snacks before dinner or not finishing my chores. When I would be found doing the wrong thing I always acted the same way. I would force out some tears and show how sorry I was for doing wrong. I did this in an attempt to convince my parents that punishment wasn't necessary because I was truly sorry for my actions. I would immediately begin to tell them I was sorry for what I had done, and I was! I was sorry that I had caught! I was sorry for the consequences of doing wrong, but not necessarily sorry FOR the wrong doing.
Other times I wouldn't get caught. I would go weeks doing something I wasn't supposed to do, but after time it would start to bother me that I was getting over on my parents. I would hear them say how proud they were of me to other people or how good I was doing in school, while in reality I was cheating on test. In these times I wouldn't force out tears or try to show my sincerity of being sorry because they didn't even know I was doing wrong. Eventually, guilt would get the best of me and I would secretly repent and stop the cheating. This time I repented because of the wrong I was doing even before their were consequences.
I believe these are two illustrations of what the Apostle Paul was talking about in 1 Corinthians 7:9-11. "9Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorry led you to repentance. for you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorry brings death. 11 See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: What earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter."
Many people become sorry for the consequences of their sins but not for the sin itself.
Which person are you? Are you quick to repent of something you get caught for and slow to come to repentance before your sin is revealed?
I pray today that you will be sensitive to what God is revealing in your life about sin. Allow His grace and abundance of mercy to rush over you as you learn to be a person that is sorry for their sins...and not only sorry for the consequences.
