Godly men weep

Godly men weep

(William Plumer, "Vital Godliness: A Treatise
on Experimental and Practical Piety" 1864)
"And he went out and wept bitterly." Matt. 26:75

We cannot have too low an opinion of ourselves;
or too high an opinion of Christ.

Godly men weep over the evils which
are found in themselves, such as . . .
error,
ignorance,
prejudice,
pride,
self-righteousness,
worldliness,
levity,
unloving tempers and dispositions,
censoriousness,
envy,
sinful anger,
hatred,
a proneness . . .
to remember wrongs,
to indulge complaints,
to forget mercies.

There is no plague like the plague of an evil heart!

There is no misery like the wretchedness of
'conscious vileness'.

There are no sighs so long and so deep-drawn
as those caused by indwelling sin. Though the
righteous shall not weep always, yet they may
weep bitterly.

"What a wretched man I am!" Romans 7:24

"I abhor myself!" Job 42:6

"Behold, I am vile!" Job 40:4

"Woe is me! For I am undone!" Isaiah 6:5

"Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" Luke 5:8

Quote: We cannot have too low an opinion of ourselves; or too high an opinion of Christ.

I thought that would have been the other way around, too low an opinion of Christ, too high of ourselves?

Especially in light of what follows, the things that godly men weep over.

And weep we should.

We are more evil than we imagine, even as Christians. We are wretched.

But thank God for the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that as we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God bless.

Quote: We cannot have too low an opinion of ourselves; or too high an opinion of Christ.

I think I initially looked at it this like you did and said "huh?" Look at it again.

It's not saying, Come on now you're not that bad don't think so low of yourself. And Christ is not so awesome.

It is saying, No matter how low you think of yourself. It is not low enough. And no matter how high you think of Christ. It is not high enough.

In Christ
Hope

Can I just say something else? I love this post, in that I know I'm not the only one. This kind of stuff vexes my soul at times when I see in me what I know God hates and he died for it. How can it be? I often weep so intensely during worship. Corporately and privately for this very reason. I used to (and still at times) worry about what people would think about this. I mean during corporate worship because it was not an occasional occurance but an all the time thing. I felt like people were thinking what is her problem? I even asked God at one point to help me remain in control of my emotions in public so people would not think I was crazy. You know what, he obliged me. I was dried up like a desert and I felt horrible. I had to repent and I didn't know if I would ever be able to weep again over my thankfulness that he would care for me like he does. Gradually the tears came back. They are flowing now. It is such a mystery to me. The grace of God toward us all. Thank God we do not get what we deserve.

Another thing. Hopefully I'm not changing the topic here, but I have come to realize that these things that we see in ourselves must be surrendered. I think it is our human nature to strive to overcome them. We see our failure in some area and say, I am not going to do that or let that happen again. When we just have to simply surrender our right to. I have still not been able to surrender all but it has been a tremendous help to just realize I could not overcome it by my own resoluteness. Pray for me saints.
In Christ
Hope

weeping is a gift, weeping for the lost, weeping for sin, weeping for joy what Christ has done..

thank God for your tears