Jason Bedell Online

Sharing some from my daily reading, here are some thoughts from today's passage...

Have you ever written a letter, had a conversation, or intervened when you saw someone was moving in the wrong direction? I've been the intervene'r and the intervene'ee, and it's tough no matter how you slice it. But, Paul in this passage talks about his letter to the church at Corinth and how he's sorry it brought them pain, but not really.

Verses 8-13 note Paul's pain in bringing them sorrow, but that Godly sorrow leads to repentance which leads to salvation- which leaves no regret. Then Paul throws another route in the scenario. He basically shares, "By pointing out the places you need to change, it will bring sorrow. But, is it a Godly sorrow or a worldly sorrow?" Because unlike Godly sorrow; worldly sorrow "leads to death."

Paul's hurting for them because of the letter was momentary, "Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance." It was momentary because of the end result. Paul found joy in the end. "Now I am happy," he said. He was joyful because the sorrow led to repentance. A change of heart. A prompting to move closer to God and leave those things behind.

When was the last time you saw someone falling, hurting, in pain, and moving away from God? Have you built a relationship with them? Does it burden your heart to see them in that situation? Does your heart break with the same things that break God's heart? Because God's message of love and life change should be shared with them, so they can see God, see themselves for who they are, and through their sorrow, let go of those things and draw near to Him.