Psalm 51:12 (NIV)
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a
willing spirit, to sustain me.
There are two ill effects of sin. One there is a sadness
that comes with sin. For the person who knows better and yet commits the act of
sin becomes sad. Two sin weakens the person. Not only do they deal with the sadness
of sin, but they must also deal with how sin weakens their spirit.
"I was years and years upon the brink of hell--I
mean in my own feeling. I was unhappy, I was desponding, I was despairing. I
dreamed of hell. My life was full of sorrow and wretchedness, believing that I
was lost."
Charles Spurgeon used these strong words to describe his
adolescent years. Despite his Christian upbringing (he was christened as an
infant, and raised in the Congregational church), and his own efforts (he read
the Bible and prayed daily), Spurgeon woke one January Sunday in 1850 with a
deep sense of his need for deliverance.
Because of a snowstorm, the 15-year-old's path to church
was diverted down a side street. For shelter, he ducked into the Primitive
Methodist Chapel on Artillery Street. An unknown substitute lay preacher
stepped into the pulpit and read his text--(Isaiah 45:22) "Look unto me,
and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none
else." [Mary Ann Jeffreys. "Charles Haddon Spurgeon," Christian
History, no. 29.]
No matter what our desperation there is always the joy of
salvation that comes to us through Jesus Christ our Lord.
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