The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. (Genesis 6:5-6 NLT)

These two Bible verses record a tragic statement. God was sad that he had put man on this earth, which broke his heart.

The Bible teaches that God is perfect and complete; he lacks nothing. He can exist without us, yet we see that he is broken-hearted over us. We can only understand this if we grasp the difference between humans and God’s sadness.

When we sin, we lose, the loss of relationship with God or with someone else, but we experience a loss. When we sin and reject God, he is sad, not because he has lost, remember God is totally self-sufficient. He experiences sorrow because God knows we have lost. His love is others-oriented.

Worldly sorrow, being sad when we sin because of what it does to us, does not lead to repentance. Think about Judas as an example. Godly sorrow is the type of sadness over the grief it causes to the heart of a good and kind God; or to others who may not be so good. Only this kind of sorrow leads to true repentance.

You and I are the offspring of Adam and Eve, and we have inherited their self-centeredness. No, we can never be totally God-like, but we can reflect his image. The first step may be admitting our self-righteousness or any other character trait that starts with self. Godly sorrow and selfishness do not coexist. To have one, you must give up the other,

I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]