Waiting for the Dawn

“For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime.  Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.”—Psalm 30:5

There are times in life when we can’t wait for the dawn.  We all know our propensity to sin.  We all know what it’s like to feel the sorrow of sin, the taunts of the enemy, and the sting of shame.  On nights like that our pain is great and we wish we could just give in and give up.  But we can’t.  We must let conviction takes it course—first remorse, then sorrow, confession, repentance, and then forgiveness, followed by restoration.  Each step is essential and not one can be skipped.  After you sin, you will feel remorse—which is a strong feeling of guilt and regret.  It will either be immediate or nagging, but you can be sure that it will be there.  After that, if you are a believer, will come godly sorrow.  This is different from worldly sorrow.  Worldly sorrow cares only about consequences or feigns emotion because that is what one is supposed to feel.  But godly sorrow?  Godly sorrow “leads to salvation without regret”—2 Corinthians 7:10.  Godly sorrow is a recognition that one has sinned in the sight of Almighty God and will not rest until there is restoration.  Godly sorrow cares nothing about consequences as much as it does about being right in the sight of God.  And godly sorrow must come for the believer.  Anything else is worldly sorrow, which leads to death, as Paul wrote,

“For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.  For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!”—2 Corinthians 7:10-11.

After godly sorrow, comes confession, which means agreeing with God.  We are told to “confess” our sins to God, because if we do, God will forgive them (1 John 1:9).  This means that we agree with God that what we did was sin and we are in need of His forgiveness.  Sin is, after all, against God and He is the one from whom we must seek forgiveness.  As David wrote,

“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.  Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be justified in Your words and blameless in Your judgment”—Psalm 51:3-4.

After confession and repentance comes forgiveness and with forgiveness comes restoration.  And while restoration is positionally immediate, it personally takes time.  It’s hard for us to understand how forgiveness works in our soul.  In the sight of God we are forgiven, but we may not “feel” forgiven immediately.  Just like when one gets married.  You may be married at the altar, but you may not necessarily feel married until a little while later.  Which is why the Psalmist said, “For His anger is but for a moment, and His favor is for a lifetime.  Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.” When we sin, we may feel His anger, but when we are sorrowful and repent, we will feel His joy.  The pain of conviction and weeping may tarry for the evening, but when we wake up in the morning, we feel refreshed and joyous that a new day has dawned and we have a new opportunity of walking with Him.  Our sin was paid for by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and we can walk in newness of life.  We don’t have to let our sin hang over us like a cloud, rather we can let the light of His countenance and the joy of His forgiveness dispel any despair or doubt.  We experienced sorrow the night before in repentance, but the dawn brings with it a chance at a new day, of restoration and walking with God.  Amen.