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The Power of Spiritual Mourning

Spiritual mourning isn’t a quality we think much about, and it’s not an attribute that our society would say is desirable. The word mourning, in most people’s minds, is a very negative term, so why would we desire this? How can we be blessed and be in mourning at the same time? The two ideas seem to be mutually exclusive but not according to Jesus. This Beatitude says we’re blessed if we mourn.

The type of mourning Jesus has in mind involves sorrow over our sins against God. It’s this spiritual mourning that Jesus described as blessed. Spiritual mourning is godly sorrow that produces repentance, and it’s blessed because it leads to life. Spiritual mourning can be defined as: A heartfelt sorrow over particular sins, arising from humility and infused with hope, that leads you to forsake these sins at the cross

This type of mourning is what Paul was getting at in 2 Corinthians 7:10: “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

Spiritual mourning begins with seeing your sins as they are, but by nature we don’t see well. Our instinct is to justify whatever we do. We don’t see ourselves as others see us, let alone as God sees us. So we need Him to shine His flashlight to shine into the dark corners of our souls. He shines that light through His Word, His Spirit, and His people. 

King David, the greatest king in Israel’s history, experienced a situation that combined natural mourning and spiritual mourning. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba and killed her husband, Uriah, to cover the sin. When Nathan the prophet confronted David about it, David experienced spiritual mourning over his sins, followed by natural mourning because of the consequences of that sin. This is what it means for us to mourn.