More on Compunction....

For those who don't understand what compunction truly is, I can only explain it in paltry terms, for it is truly something that must needs be experienced. While the most common definitions will suggest "pain or mental anguish that is the result of a consciousness of sin, or the possibility of future sin," I think this still leaves something to be desired. In my mind, and I think in the classic sense which the Desert Fathers understood it, compunction is that sense of absolute dread at the sight, or touch of God. That absolute awareness of one's own unbelievable sinfulness, and failure to honor God at all. Such a sense that one would only want to bury their face in the earth, and dare not raise their eyes in the presence of the Most High Judge of all. The sudden awareness of one's sins, and their consequences, past, present, and future. I think this is somewhat of the experience we read in Isaiah, when he declares that "I saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple....and I said woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips...".

Of course I believe that we have access to the throne of grace, and we can indeed come boldly into the presence of the Almighty God, without fear of being squashed like a bug, but this does not do away with the concept of compunction. Indeed I think compunction is a grace, or a gift if you will, for it is a revelation of the absolute holiness of God, in contrast to my utter failure to live up to HIs holiness.