Tag Archives: Repentance

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Flawed But Forgiven

Helplessly Flawed but Not Hopelessly Lost

PREVIEW: Living in God’s favor is not about sinless perfection. None of us will reach that lofty plane in this life. I wish we could—I especially wish I could. But because I have been fundamentally infected with sin, that will not happen until I reach heaven. I—and you—will continue to stumble into sin until the day we die. And that sin will bring uncomfortable if not outright tragic consequences into our lives. So what is a helplessly flawed Christian to do? One, cultivate self-awareness of your propensity to sin. Two, cultivate godly sorrow for your sinfulness. And three, cultivate a repentant heart—then repent, early and often.

“We’re all helplessly flawed, but there is hope! You see, we can also be fully forgiven, and as a result, live under the high favor of God—if we are sincerely repentant for our sinfulness.”

A Journey of Worship // Psalm 41:4,12

O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you…In my integrity you uphold me set me in your presence forever.

The juxtaposition of these two verses presents a problematic incongruence. It appears that David is speaking out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, he is connecting his personal sin with physical malady and public hostility. On the other hand, he claims that it is his personal integrity that gives him favored status before the Almighty.

However, there is no incongruence for David—or for you and me. Yes, we are all helplessly flawed, but there is hope! You see, we can also be fully forgiven, and as a result, live under the high favor of God if we are sincerely repentant for our sinfulness.

Living within God’s favor is not about sinless perfection. None of us will reach that lofty plane in this life. I wish we could—I especially wish I could. But because I have been fundamentally infected with sin, that will not happen until I reach heaven. I—and you—will continue to, as a good friend of mine was fond of saying, “dip ourselves in the yogurt” of sin until the day we die. And that sin will bring uncomfortable, if not outright tragic consequences into our lives.

So how, then, can we claim a personal integrity that invites the attention, honor, and favor of God? I would suggest there are three characteristics we can, and should cultivate, as David did, that will allow us as flawed people to be fully forgiven and highly favored:

First, we must cultivate self-awareness. Not an over-indulgence in introspection and self-absorption, but a healthy consciousness of both our strengths and weaknesses. I was recently speaking with a person about a relational crisis they were experiencing, and they were pouring out their heart about how difficult the other person was. When I asked them to share what flaws they brought into the troubled mix, I got a blank stare and an admission that they couldn’t think of any. That is not all that uncommon in troubled relationships. Although they are not always willing to be as honest as the person I interviewed, many times they are simply unaware or unwilling to consider the pain and problems they are contributing to the situation. David was incredibly self-aware…and he often asked God to make him even more aware, painfully aware of his own flaws (see Psalms 26:2, 139:23-24). Maybe you should too!

Second, we must cultivate godly sorrow. Not self-pity, but redemptive sorrow. Self-pity leads only to depression; self-awareness without sorrow for sin brings only hopelessness, unproductive navel-gazing, and a pessimistic approach to life. However, as the Apostle Paul taught in 2 Corinthians 7:10-11, godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, while worldly sorrow brings only death. I think that was the secret to a seriously flawed David’s favor with God—he experienced deep sorrow for his sins. Perhaps we should ask God to break our hearts quickly anytime we think, say, or do anything that breaks his heart.

And third, self-awareness and godly sorrow must lead to sincere repentance. I’m not talking about feeling bad that we’ve been caught in a goof or are having to “pay the piper” for our imperfections. I’m talking about confessing our offense, making amends when we should and can, and turning from our sinful actions by walking an opposite path toward holiness and kingdom fruitfulness.

Well, that’s a mouthful—but I think you get the picture. That’s how you can be a “deeply flawed person of integrity” and live under the full forgiveness and high favor of the Almighty. And hallelujah, that is only possible with the God we serve!

My Offering of Worship: Memorize Psalm 139:23-24, “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Then pray it with a sincere heart.

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Who Will Be God in Your Life?

Arresting Spiritual Drift

SYNOPSIS: Who is going to be God in your life? That’s a pertinent question for you today because you’re going to worship someone or something. Wherever you place your unmitigated dependence and spend your full-throttled energy or to whomever you give your singular devotion has become your god. Of course, we don’t worship literal images made of wood, stone, silver, or gold like the ancient Israelites did, but we are just as susceptible to the seduction of less visible but highly sophisticated idols like money, sex, and power, that is, earthly security, momentary pleasure, and misused control? Take it from the ancient Israelites—there is only one God who is worthy of your unalloyed zeal. They learned that the hard way so you don’t have to.

The Journey// Focus: Judges 10:15-16

But the Israelites pleaded with the Lord and said, “We have sinned. Punish us as you see fit, only rescue us today from our enemies.” Then the Israelites put aside their foreign gods and served the Lord. And he was grieved by their misery.

Same song, twenty-ninth verse: Israel abandons the worship of God only to chase after the local deities of the Canaanites. So God lifts his hand of blessing from them and allows them to have what they want—a visible, controllable, good luck charm god. But as before, the same sad results ensue: Israel is left defenseless against cruel enemies, their agrarian economy collapses, their families suffer undue hardship and their lives are miserable under the rule of foreign gods and foreign nations. Then, predictably, they come to themselves, cry out to God, repent, and God sends a rescuer—judge after judge who rises up to bail them out. That is the story repeated over and over in Judges.

Of course, we have the advantage of looking back at this four-hundred-year period of on-again, off-again religion and viewing it only as a relatively short snapshot of history. It wasn’t. There were long patterns of obedience and blessing on Israel’s part—ten, twenty, thirty years of faithfulness to God. But then Israel would cycle into spiritual lassitude and moral drift until finally, they were into full-on backsliding. And the oppressive consequences would follow—ten, twenty, thirty years of domination by godless and ruthless enemies.

So why didn’t the children of Israel learn their lesson after the first beating? Why did they drift into idol worship over and over again? What was their infatuation with other gods? Again, we look back upon their history without understanding the long periods of time that the nation cycled through, and in so doing we fail to realize that we are prone to the same kind of drift and wrong dependencies as they were—we are just a little more sophisticated with our worship of idols. The Quest Study Bible offers some reasons for their infatuation with local idols, and as you ponder these that follow, see if you can identify your own tendencies to drift from utter dependence and ruthless obedience to God:

  1. Idols were physical objects that could be seen (Lev 26:1). Israel’s God, on the other hand, was unseen.
  2. Idols could be carried, controlled, and confined. Israel’s God, however, was an awesome and mysterious God who could not be manipulated by his people. He “moved” whenever and wherever he wanted.
  3. Foreign gods were thought to have power over crops, a prime concern of the Israelites. The people were superstitious and didn’t want to risk their harvests by offending the pagan gods.
  4. Some foreign gods were believed to give fertility to the womb. The worship of these gods involved religious prostitution (1Ki 14:24) and other sexually immoral practices, which appealed to the sensual desires of the Israelites. The Israelites may have concluded that it was better to indulge in these pleasurable activities than to displease the gods of fertility.
  5. Idol worship was a cultural norm. The Israelites often found it easier to join in local customs than to go against them.

Who is going to be God in your life? That is a pertinent question for you today because you are going to worship someone or something. Your god is whatever you are putting your full-throttled dependence upon and giving your singular devotion to. Of course, we don’t worship literal images made of wood, stone, silver, or gold like the ancient Israelites did, but wouldn’t you agree that we are just as susceptible to the seduction of less visible but highly sophisticated idols like money, sex, and power, that is, earthly security, momentary pleasure and misused control?

If you are placing importance, expending energy, and make a personal investment in things that drown out your full-throttled devotion and singular devotion to God, you have made them into an idol. But here’s the deal: at the end of the day, those things will have amounted to nothing. In fact, they will have done real harm to the blessings that God would have poured out in your life had you waited upon him in devotion and dependence.

If reading through this is convicting you at all, I would suggest you quickly get on your knees and cry out to God in sincere repentance, as the Israelites did. Put aside your wrong dependencies and misplaced devotions and worship God only. Perhaps he will be grieved by your misery and reach out to you in love.

No, not perhaps—he really will reach out to you in love.

Going Deeper: Where have you put devotion and dependence on someone or something other than God? Arrest that spiritual drift by crying out to God, rejecting your false gods, and turning fully toward him. Allow him to bless you once again—he really wants to.

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God Has No Grandkids

Each Generation Must Seek God For Itself

SYNOPSIS: The Israelites, under Joshua, knew God, enjoyed his favor, experienced his presence, and walked in obedience before him—but in the book of Judges, their children missed out. What the parents knew and loved didn’t transfer to the kids. For the next generation, “the God of my father” never became “my Lord and my God!” Knowing about God never became knowing God. Here’s the deal: God has no grandchildren. Each generation is responsible to seek God for itself. However, it is the responsibility of the parents to drill that into their children, early and often, leading them to the door of faith. But children have to walk through the door for themselves. At the end of the day, they may reject their parents’ faith, but not because the parents didn’t do their best to inculcate their kids with the knowledge of God. Parents, by all means, lead your children to the door of decision.

The Journey// Focus: Judges 2:10-14,16

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them.…Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

Prosperity, rebellion, consequence, repentance, restoration….prosperity, rebellion, consequence, repentance, restoration…

That is the sad cycle of Judges. So be warned: you will get a lot of that as you read this book. In many ways, it is a frustrating, if not depressing history, but such is the dark reality of life in rebellion against God. Yet within this collection of stories that take place over the 400 years between Joshua’s death and the arrival of Samuel the prophet, you will also find sun breaks of God’s grace, inspiring stories of heroic men and woman who stepped in to lead Israel to revival, and invaluable life application for those who are serious about obeying their covenant of love with God.

This second chapter is both a preview and an overview of the book of Judges. The verse above captures the problem: when Joshua and his generation died, somehow the baton was dropped with the next generation that grew up, and for whatever reason, “knew neither the Lord nor what he had done.”

Therein lies the problem that has perpetually haunted God’s people. The next generation somehow misses out on knowing God. Interesting, and sad, isn’t it, how that happens! Their parents knew God, enjoyed his favor, experienced his presence, and walked in obedience before him—but their kids missed out. What the parents knew and loved didn’t transfer to the children. For the next generation, “the God of my fathers” never became “my Lord and my God!” Knowing about God never became knowing God.

Why? Who knows for sure, but just as we have seen within our own families, there are different reasons. Perhaps the parents were so busy with God stuff that they didn’t include their kids. Maybe the parents assumed their faith would simply transfer, sort of by osmosis, to their children. It could be that the next generation grew up with a sense of entitlement—believing the presence of God and his favor was owed them. It might be that the kids vicariously experienced spiritual life through their parents’ spirituality. Or it is possible that these children hung out around the holy, and it just became so common that their sense of God became jaded. There are a lot of possibilities, but whatever the reason, the God of their fathers never became their God. Somehow, the baton was dropped.

The deal is, God has no grandchildren. Each generation is responsible to seek God for itself. And it is the responsibility of the parents to drill that into their kids, early and often. The parent is to bring the child to the doorway of faith, but the child has to step through to personal faith. At the end of the day, they may reject their parents’ faith, but not because the parents didn’t do their best to inculcate their kids with the knowledge of God.

If the parents fail to do this, or if the kids refuse to accept this, the outcome is predictable: Prosperity. rebellion, consequence, repentance, restoration….prosperity, rebellion, consequence, repentance, restoration… It is the vicious cycle of rebellion and restoration. It would just be a lot simpler and far better if we would just stay in the restoration zone.

What is the key to avoiding this Judges’ syndrome: Know God and remember what he has done. That is not a passive thing, but an active laying hold of the things of the Lord. It takes consistent, dogged intentionality, but it is well worth the effort.

Going Deeper: Sit you children or grandchildren down and tell them of the goodness of God. Then invite them to know God personally. Help them to accept your God as their own personal Lord and Savior. Do it today! Then check back with them from time to time.

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The Road To Restoration

“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is Near"

The Gospel literally begins with the word “repent.” That’s because salvation starts with a repentant heart. In an age when believers, for fear of being offensive, are afraid to call out moral wrong, warn of divine judgment, and invite people to repent, let’s not forget that no one—not a single human being—is ever made right with God without first expressing sorrow for their sin, admitting their guilt, and making the decision to change their ways to follow God’s way—which is what repentance is. Nothing could be truer: spiritual restoration starts with sincere repentance.tion starts with sincere repentance.

The Journey // Focus: Genesis 44:14-16

Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him. Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?” Judah replied, “What can we say to my lord? What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servants’ guilt. We are now my lord’s slaves—we ourselves and the one who was found to have the cup.”

Without knowing the full context of this story (Genesis 37-45), you might think that Joseph is exacting a pound of flesh from his brothers. They had horribly mistreated him two decades before. Wanting to murder him, they ultimately had thrown him into a pit, then sold him into slavery, which landed Joseph in Egypt where he was again sold to another master. His brothers were not just angry with him, not just jealous of their father’s preference for him—they actually profited off of their cruelty to him. They went as low as human beings can go.

As the story goes, Joseph’s mistreatment continued in Egypt for twenty years, until finally, as God providentially directed the affairs of Joseph’s life, the Lord raised him to the second highest position in the land. At the same time, again God providentially used a region-wide famine to direct these same brothers back to Joseph to plead, first for food, then for their very lives. All of this, by the way, was the exact fulfillment (Genesis 44:14) of the dreams Joseph had told his brothers years before (Genesis 37:10) that had unleashed their murderous hatred and insane outrage against him.

In this story, Joseph, his identity not recognized to his brothers, allows them to plead their case before him. He listens as they unfold their story, pleading their integrity, protesting their innocence, yet admitting their guilt. (Genesis 44:16) His brother, Judah, even offers to substitute his life as a payment for the punishment Joseph will inflict on their youngest sibling, Benjamin. (Genesis 44:33-34)

As Joseph allows this to slowly play out, one gets the sense that he has rehearsed this very moment over and over in his mind for years. Perhaps he had; he’d had a long time in a lonely prison cell to think of the evil his brothers had done to him, and what he would do if he ever had the upper hand on them. But being the man of integrity and godly character that we observe in the chapters surrounding this story, Joseph was not at all slowly, painfully extracting an admission of guilt from them, as if somehow that would make up for all the years that had been lost from the family. No, this was not about revenge, it was about repentance. Joseph was allowing them to come to grips with their evil, and to verify if their sorrow was simply because they had gotten caught or if they were truly sorry for their sin against him. Obviously, they recognized their guilt, not just before Joseph, but before Almighty God: “God has uncovered your servants’ guilt.” (Genesis 44:16)

Ultimately necessary to restoration of the broken relationship between Joseph and the brothers was their repentance. Repentance would lead to the offer of restitution, which was appropriate, but as we see, graciously not demanded by Joseph (Genesis 50:15-21) and the reconciliation that Joseph offered back to them. Of course, the story has many levels of application: It provides the history of how the people of God move through the course of time. It demonstrates the dynamics of family restoration. Most importantly, it reminds us of the sovereignty of God in moving the course of events to fulfill his purposes in the world—and in our lives. But this also provides for us a picture of repentance and our restoration to God.

And the salient point as it relates to spiritual restoration is that it all starts with repentance. In point of fact, the New Testament Gospel literally beings with the word “repent.” When John the Baptist announced the coming of the Messiah, he proclaimed, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 3:2) When Jesus launched his public ministry, he preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17) Salvation begins with repentance—no if’s, and’s or but’s about it.

It all starts with repentance. In a age when believers are afraid to call people to repent for fear of being offensive, or not liked, or actually telling the world that they are morally wrong and in danger of divine judgment, we must remember that no one—not a single human being—get’s to “pass go or collect $200” without first expressing sorrow for sin, admitting guilt before a holy God, and offering to change both way of thinking and behaving to walk in obedience to his way. And that is what biblical repentance means.

It all starts with repentance. Let’s never forget that. If we do, we, and those we are trying to reach, are dead in the water.

Furthermore, let’s never forget what a gift God has given us in making the provision for authentic repentance. For by it, the guilty are pardoned and the undeserving are showered in his grace. Thank God for repentance!

Going Deeper: Repentance is more than just an apology. It is to change your thinking and to change your way; to turn and move in the opposite direction—the right path toward God. Is there any area of your life that you need to offer to God in repentance? Today is the day!

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Hit Reset

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

God’s merciful gift of repentance should cause us to offer continually grateful lives to him. He is a God who loves to forgive us, and has made it possible to reset our wayward lives before we come under his much deserved judgment for our sin. He doesn’t have to, but he does, and the fact that he gives us opportunity to repent should create a passionate desire to live uprightly before him, and when we discover that we haven’t, to quickly come before him in heartfelt and humble repentance. Thank God for this divine reset. We should hit it as often as we need.

Going Deep // Focus: 2 Kings 22:10-13

Shaphan also told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” So Shaphan read it to the King Josiah. When the king heard what was written in the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes in despair. Then he gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the court secretary, and Asaiah the king’s personal adviser: “Go to the Temple and speak to the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah. Inquire about the words written in this scroll that has been found. For the Lord’s great anger is burning against us because our ancestors have not obeyed the words in this scroll. We have not been doing everything it says we must do.”

Josiah became king when he was only eight-years-old, and he loved God as not too many kings of Israel and Judah had. We are not entirely sure of his upbringing, but some godly person exerted a powerful influence upon the boy. His father has been and done evil in the Lord’s sight, and his grandfather, King Manasseh, although he repented in the latter years of his long reign, had been one of the most brutal and vile kings ever. But Josiah loved the Lord with all his heart. He passionately pursued the welfare of both God and Judah, and became known as the reformer king. King Josiah was a jewel.

He was incredibly sensitive to the Lord, and responsive when he discovered that the nation, both past and present, had violated the law of God. On the occasion of the discovery of a prophetic scroll condemning the nation for its systemic pattern of sin, he humbled himself and wept before the Lord. He brought his spiritual advisors around him and sought their wisdom on how to right Judah’s listing ship. And through his heartfelt repentance, God promised to delay the much-deserved judgment that he would one day bring upon his sinful people.

Thank God for repentance. It is truly his life-saving gift to the human race. Repentance is the divine reset button for mankind. In his mercy and by his grace, God made provision for fallen human beings, both individually and collectively, to realign their wayward lives to his Word through the act of repentance—acknowledging their sin, humbling themselves before God, seeking his forgiveness, then turning for their wicked ways to follow the path of righteousness.

If God had not provided us the opportunity to acknowledge sin, seek forgiveness and make restitution where called for, the human race would be helplessly under the righteous judgment of Almighty God. The fact of the matter is, without this gift from God, I would not be writing this devotional, you would not be reading it, and none of us would even be taking in oxygen right now. We would have been destroyed as a race millennia ago. The prophet Jeremiah summed up this whole idea of grace and mercy in one of my favorite verses, where he wrote these words:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22)

Now from Josiah and Jeremiah, here is a critical truth we should understand about God: He is not a God who loves to visit trouble on his people. That is not his character. He is not a God of judgment first, but of love and compassion first.

Rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. (Joel 2:13)

Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgressions of the remnant? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. (Micah 7:18)

But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9)

Now the hard truth is, unless we take God up on his gift of repentance, his wrath will be poured out upon us. 2 Peter 3:10 goes on to say, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” Of course, Peter is speaking of the final judgment to come upon the earth. And that looming reality ought to lead us to live soberly and righteously before the Lord.

But it should also cause us to live gratefully before him as well. He is a God who loves to forgive, and has made it possible to reset our wayward lives before we come under his judgment. The fact that he gave us that gift from his gracious and merciful heart should create a passionate desire to live uprightly before him, like Josiah. And when we discover that we haven’t, to quickly come before him in heartfelt and humble repentance.

Thank God for the divine reset. Hit it as often as you need.

Going Deeper With God: Allow the Lord to reveal areas of your life for which you should repent. Then do it. Humble yourself before God, seek his face, ask for forgiveness, and then begin to walk in a way that pleases him. There is no greater living than in a lifestyle of repentance.

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A Cautionary Tale

ThanksLiving: 365 Days of Gratitude

Saul could have had it all—and so can you. But it requires a heart after God. That is what he was looking for in Saul, and ultimately found in David. What does that mean, a heart after God? Perfection? Sinlessness? Inherent loveliness? No, it simply means that from a humble heart you offer to God ruthless trust, sincere obedience and a willingness to come clean when you blow it.

Going Deep // Focus: 1 Samuel 28:4-8

The Philistines set up their camp at Shunem, and Saul gathered all the army of Israel and camped at Gilboa. When Saul saw the vast Philistine army, he became frantic with fear. He asked the Lord what he should do, but the Lord refused to answer him, either by dreams or by sacred lots or by the prophets. Saul then said to his advisers, “Find a woman who is a medium, so I can go and ask her what to do.” His advisers replied, “There is a medium at Endor.” So Saul disguised himself by wearing ordinary clothing instead of his royal robes. Then he went to the woman’s home at night, accompanied by two of his men. “I have to talk to a man who has died,” he said. “Will you call up his spirit for me?

In my mind, Saul is the most enigmatic figure in the Bible—his great start but disastrous finish will baffle me until the day I die. One of the last places we see Saul alive is I Samuel 28 where he is so desperate for spiritual guidance in his train-wreck of a life that he actually visits a witch in the village of Endor.

Contrast that with one of the first times we meet Saul, and Samuel has anointed him as king: “Samuel said to all the people, ‘Do you see the man the LORD has chosen? There is no one like him among all the people.’” (1 Samuel 10:24) That description is unusual in Scripture as if to acknowledge that out of all the people God could have chosen, he intentionally choose Saul.

Obviously something went terrible wrong between 1 Samuel 10 and 1 Samuel 28. In fact, some scholars suggest that between Saul’s anointing and Samuel’s first rebuke of Saul in chapter 13 for his failure to follow God’s word may only have been a couple of years into his reign.

Not only enigmatic, Saul is also one of the saddest characters in scripture. Had Saul just wholeheartedly obeyed God as David did, he could have the same enormous promises that the Lord made to David:

Samuel said. “You have acted foolishly; you have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you; if you had, he would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time. But now your kingdom will not endure; the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people, because you have not kept the LORD’s command.” (1 Samuel 13:13-14)

“The Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel for all time.” Those are powerful words in light of the promise of an everlasting kingdom that God made and has fulfilled through David. What might have been had Saul just wholehearted obeyed! “What might have been” have to be the saddest words in the human language!

Enigmatic and instructive, Saul is also one of the most instructive characters in the Bible. His downfall is a cautionary tale for the rest of us. Let all who pass by Saul pause and reflect on their own life. In fact, Saul’s tragic end brings to mind I Corinthians 10:11-12,

These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!

Saul is an example to us. Paul says, “Look, if you think that can’t happen to you, let me give you a heads up: yes it can!” If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! Now that might be a little unnerving, but in hindsight, the wrong turns in Saul’s life are pretty obvious:

  • Saul tolerated subtle sin. He made excuses, he justified wrong actions, and he presumed God would excuse his “little” indiscretions.
  • Saul tolerated distance from God. He did everything else but repent to find relief from the misery in his life brought on by disobedience.
  • Saul tolerated poisoned relationships: With his spiritual mentor Samuel—he disobeyed. With his loving son Jonathan—he threw spears. With his loyal protégé David—he tried to murder him. Each of these men tried their best to restore relationship with Saul, but the hard-hearted king refused to make changes.

Saul could have had it all—and so can you. But that requires a heart after God. That is what God was looking for in Saul, and ultimately found in David. What does that mean, a heart after God? Perfection? Sinlessness? Inherent loveliness? No, it simply means that out of a humble heart you offer to God ruthless trust, sincere obedience and a willingness to come clean when you blow it.

And that is something I can definitely give to God—and you can too!

Going Deeper With God: Like me, you are far from perfect. That is okay, since Jesus was perfect for you. Take a moment to come before God with sincere gratitude for his grace that covers your flaws.

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Coming Clean

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 51
Focus: Psalm 51:10-12

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

I can’t imagine the depth of David’s anguish as he came before the Lord carrying the guilt and shame of the Bathsheba affair. He had committed adultery, he had conspired to commit murder, he had murdered a gifted and loyal soldier, he had covered his tracks for several months—and all the while he was miserable.

But when a courageous prophet named Nathan stood before David, the most powerful man in the world, a man who held the power of life and death over pesky little prophets like Nathan, and confronted the king with this evil—his evil—David repented. And in this moving prayer of contrition before the Lord, which is what Psalm 51 really is, King David openly and fully expressed to God the depth of shame and humility that revealed why, in spite of such a horrible sin, he was still a man after God’s heart.

This psalm provides a great case study in authentic repentance. David wasn’t wanting just to off-load his guilt by getting this sin off his chest. He wasn’t just attempting to get a pass by coming clean. He wasn’t just feeling sorry because he had finally been caught. Not at all! David recognized the utter horror of having offended a holy God. He realized the indescribable pain of having messed up the lives of people over whom he had just played God. He fully confessed his wicked act, and the wicked heart that had led to the act. (Psalm 51:5) And by so doing, David cast himself upon God’s infinite mercy, recognizing that only then could he be granted a heart that was truly clean, tender to the Lord, and willing to do the things that God desired. (Psalm 51:10-13,17)

Adultery…conspiracy…murder…cover up—those were David’s sins. And Psalm 51, his famous prayer of coming clean, provides a great case study in authentic repentance. David wasn’t wanting just to off-load his guilt by getting these sins off his chest. He wasn’t just hoping to blunt his punishment by confession. He wasn’t just feeling sorry because he’d finally been caught. Not at all! David recognized the utter horror of having offended a holy God. He realized the indescribable pain of having messed up the lives of people over whom he had just played God. So he fully confessed his wicked act, and the wicked heart that had led to the act. And by so doing, David cast himself upon God’s infinite mercy, recognizing that only then could he be granted a heart that was truly clean, tender to the Lord, and willing to do the things that God desired. By the way, you and I are David in this psalm. We are in no less need of the mercy and grace of Almighty God who will create within us a clean heart and grant us a willingness to fully obey when we fully repent. And thank God, as Menno Simons wrote, “Wherever there is a pulverized and penitent heart, there grace also is, and wherever there is a voluntary confession not gained by pressure, there love covereth a multitude of sins.”

I cannot imagine the depth of David’s guilt and the excruciating pain of his shame! Or can I? Have I not offended the Lord just as coldly and willingly as David? Have I not murdered, conspired, been willfully unfaithful and concealed sin before a holy God who demands holiness in me? Yes—I have! Not visibly, but certainly in my heart—at the very core of what makes me fully me—which Jesus pointed out is just as offensive to a holy God and corrosive to my spirit as the physical act of sin. (Matthew 5:21-28)

You see, I am David in this psalm. And so are you. And we are in no less need of the mercy and grace of Almighty God than this heartbroken king. And not only are we, too, in need of a God who will forgive all of our sins, but we are in desperate need of a merciful God who will create within us a clean heart and grant us a willingness to fully obey.

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“Wherever there is a pulverized and penitent heart, there grace also is, and wherever there is a voluntary confession not gained by pressure, there love covereth a multitude of sins.” (Menno Simons)

 

Making Life Work: True repentance—what a grace! We need to access it more often, I suspect. And when we do, it is only then that can we know the deepest and best joy of all: The joy of our salvation! (Psalm 51:12)