“More sorrow for sin” (“More Holiness Give Me”, Phillip Paul Bliss). I think that if all of us had a complete and clear understanding of the full consequences of sin, then we wouldn't be tricked into sinning so often. When we think about the vastness of eternity and the fullness of glory and joy that eternal life and eternal increase in the Celestial Kingdom can bring and the impenetrable gulf that yawns between that happy and blessed state and any other outcome, why would we allow any temporary pleasure or unjust satisfaction or selfish indulgence or fearful abdication of responsibility put our eternal happiness at risk? And even setting aside the eternal stakes that hang on our every decision, if we would only remember with sharp clarity all of the pain and suffering that our sins have brought to ourselves and others, then likewise we would think twice before acting again in so self-destructive a manner. If we have wound ourselves so tightly with the chains of iniquity that we are past feeling remorse or alarm or even vague discomfort for our sins, then we need to pray that our hearts might be softened and we could begin to feel more sorrow for our sins. All of us have more than enough sorrow in our lives. In fact, for many of us, it was our misguided and fruitless efforts to flee from or avoid sorrow that led us to sin in the first place. But if sin is going to bring with it a vicious downward spiral of more and more sorrow, and not the kind of sorrow that leads us to change and repent, but merely the sorrow of the damned who refuse to change and are merely saddened that they cannot always wring happiness from their wickedness, then we are much better off asking for more Godly sorrow now, which does lead us to change and repent and forsake our sins and get us out of the black hole that sucks all happiness and joy from our lives, so that we can endure for a moment the pain of more sorrow for sin so that we can become freed from sin and feel a lightening of the burden we have been carrying and an increased sensitivity to feel the love Jesus Christ has for us and the joy that this brings.
