"And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord....And Peter went out and wept bitterly" (Luke 22:61-62). Referring to this story, Charles Wesley wrote these lines:
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone!
Give me, through Thy dying love,
The humble, contrite heart.
Do you and I not need this "look" from Christ to melt us down, causing us to weep over our sins? It is true that Jehovah "looks" to those who are "poor and of a contrite spirit" (Isaiah 66:2), but it is actually this "look" from the Lord to us personally (as to Peter) that enables us to be "poor and contrite," and weep before Him. O for weepers to be restored to the modern church! How we need this vital order to become reality to us: looking, remembering, weeping!
And why? Because, as Wesley says, only by this look can our hearts of stone be changed. Calvary's cry was, "Father, forgive them." Does this not melt your
heart of stone? Does this not cause you to go to a secret place, weeping over your personal sins that sent Christ to the cursed tree? What else could possibly break our hard, stony hearts but Calvary's love?
Today I watched a portion of a Roman Catholic "Solemn Mass." I marvelled at the blindness and ignorance of priests and people in bowing before idols, and going through elaborate rituals. It did nothing for me spiritually. But all too often neither do our Protestant religious services. Let us "examine ourselves" here. Why be critical of Catholics and those of other denominations when we ourselves may be religiously as hard-hearted as they? With Wesley, let us ever seek the Lord Jesus Christ to be truly merciful to us, and say,
Turn, and look upon me, Lord,
And break my heart of stone.
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