Genuine spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of God. Repentance is too precious a flower to grow in nature's garden. Pearls form naturally in oysters, but true sorrow for sin never appears in sinners unless divine grace produces it. If you have even one particle of real hatred for sin, God must have given it to you. Human nature's thorns never produced a single fig. What is born of the flesh is flesh.

True repentance always has its eyes on the Savior. When we repent, we need one eye on our sin and the other on the cross. Better still, fix both eyes on Christ and see your transgressions only in the light of his love.

True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No one can claim to hate sin while still living in it. Repentance makes us see the evil of sin not as theory, but as experience—as a burned child dreads fire. We become as afraid of sin as a man who has been robbed fears the thief on the highway. We shun it in everything—not just in great things, but in little things too, as men avoid little vipers as carefully as great snakes.

True mourning for sin will make you jealous over your tongue, lest it speak a wrong word. You will watch your daily actions carefully, afraid of offending in anything. Each night you will close the day with painful confessions of shortcoming. Each morning you will awaken with anxious prayers: "God, hold me up today that I may not sin against you."

Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day. This well never runs dry. Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our growth. It is such a sweet bitter that we thank God we are permitted to experience it until we enter our eternal rest.