Jeffrey C. Long

January 17

My sins rise higher than my head and their weight has become too heavy for me.

(Psalm 38:5)

This is what happens when a person otherwise as godly as David falls through pride of heart and security into deep sin that he would hardly have thought himself capable of. So there must be deep repentance. But we should not for that reason think that every person who repents must follow a certain method and rule. For there are in fact many people who live in the world, as we say, who do not really live entirely apart from God. I have often noticed that there are many more people who pray and call upon God in every situation than we might think. People like this stand in a certain fear of God. When people in this condition experience real spiritual awakening, the sorrow of repentance is not the same, because they are not at such a great distance from God.

For this reason it is very wrong-headed when we virtually force such souls to demonstrate a repentance to the death and inner agony; even unawakened and unconverted people have some thoughts of God and experience a certain fear of Him. Be careful of insisting on something that has not the slightest proof from Scripture. The Lord did not want to make the path to Christian joy so hard and bitter!

Johann Christoph Blumhardt

Translated by Monty Ledford

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