Turning Tears Of Guilt Into Tears Of Joy

Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
Matthew 26:75

You have failed someone who was counting on you. Guilt is written all over your face. You lower your head in shame and remorse.

Guilty! That’s the unspoken verdict for many individuals who have faced failure in the service of the Lord. But as the apostle Peter discovered and as Hannah Whitall Smith describes, God’s forgiveness is as near as a prayer.

WALK WITH HANNAH WHITALL SMITH
“A little girl once asked if the Lord Jesus always forgave us for our sins as soon as we asked him, and I had said, ‘Yes, of course he does.’

“ ‘Just as soon?’ she repeated doubtfully. ‘Yes,’ I replied, ‘the minute we ask, he forgives us.’

“ ‘Well, I cannot believe that,’ she replied deliberately. ‘I should think he would make us feel sorry for two or three days first. And then I think he would make us ask him a great many times, and not just in common talk. And I believe that is the way he does, and you need not try to make me think he forgives me right at once, no matter what the Bible says.’

“She only said what many Christians think, and what is worse, what a great many Christians act on, for then the emotions of discouragement and remorse make them feel further from God than their sin would have done.”

WALK CLOSER TO GOD
When you can no longer lift guilty eyes to God, you can be certain that God is still looking at you. Not with the peeved expression of an irritated parent, but with compassion, love and tenderness.

When you least expect him to forgive, he reaches out in grace—reminding you that you are his own, wiping away the tears of remorse, encouraging you to try again.

If your eyes are clouded with tears of guilt and failure today, run to your Father’s waiting arms. He’s ready to turn your weeping into tears of joy.