In the heights where Israel had once committed idolatry, she now wept with prayers of supplication for God’s help. She had awareness of her own crooked ways and her failure to remember God first. Yet, God was still waiting for her to repent.
There is a difference between being sorry for our sins and repenting of our sins. Often we are more sorry for the consequences of sin, than the sin itself. We weep over the brokenness of our world and cry out to God, but we don’t repent. Repentance is more than sorrow. It is more than regret. In repentance we simultaneously turn from sin and turn towards God through faith in Christ. It is the prayer of repentance that God answers.
There is much weeping in our country these days, but little repentance.