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Flawed But Forgiven

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 41:1-13
Focus: Psalm 41:4,12

O LORD, have mercy on me; heal me, for I have sinned against you…
In my integrity you uphold me and 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. But 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 people are not always willing to be as honest as that person I had 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 godly 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 II 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 taking 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 opposition line 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!

__________________

“God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.” (Augustine)

 

Making Life Work: Don’t wait another moment in going before God and asking him to reveal sin, both known and unknown, in your life. Then, repent of it, ask him to remove it, and purpose in your heart, with his help, to walk in integrity before him.

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Organic Devotion

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 40:4
Focus: Psalm 40:1-17

Blessed is the man who makes the LORD his trust.

Are you willing to trust God completely—even when it doesn’t make sense? Are you willing to praise the Lord unconditionally—even when life throws you a curve? Will you speak of his love and goodness gratefully—even when on the surface, circumstances would seem to indicate anything but his loving-kindness toward you?

Of course, committed Christ-followers always answer quickly and resoundingly with a “yes!” to those questions. But what happens to your complete, unconditional trust, like David:

  • When you find yourself in a “slimy pit” (Psalm 40:2)
  • When the will of God requires “sacrifice and offering” that are painful and costly (Psalm 40:6)
  • When your many “troubles” and personal “sin” have landed you in deep weeds, causing your “heart” to dispair (Psalm 40:12)
  • When there are those who want to “ruin” your reputation, “take your life” and make a public mockery of you (Psalm 40:14-15)

What happens then? Are you just as willing to trust the Lord and give testimony to his great faithfulness?

In a very real sense, neither good times nor bad days were relevant to David’s faith, because his life was anchored in something far better: the immutable character of a righteous and loving God. As a result, what you witness in David is profound trust in spite of difficult circumstances and unfettered praise in scorn of harsh consequences.

Both in private and in public, King David exuded the kind of organic devotion to God that came with no strings attached (Psalm 40:9-10),

I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly;
I do not seal my lips, as you know, O LORD.
I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal your love and your truth
from the great assembly.

Throughout the millennia, here have been innumerable spiritual heroes, like David, who have exhibited that kind of organic devotion. One in particular comes to mind. In the year 155 AD, one of the early church fathers, and eighty-six year old man names Polycarp, a Christ-follower who had been discipled by the Apostle John himself, was burned at the stake. When given the chance to recant before the fires were lit, he said, “Eighty and six years I have served Christ and He has done me nothing but good; how then could I curse Him, my Lord and Savior?” Polykarp was one of the blessed who was martyred for his faith.

“Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.”

Now that’s organic devotion! But you might ask: How was Polycarp so blessed, since he was burned to death? Where is the blessing in dying such a torturous, humiliating death? Well, Polycarp has been elevated to that eternal cloud of witnesses alongside David, while his executioners have been relegated to the dustbin of history.

You see, from this side of life, trust doesn’t always make sense, but from the eternal side, unconditional trusting bears the fruit of eternal blessing.

So yes, blessed is the one who makes the Lord his trust! David was blessed—so was Polycarp. I want to be one of those in the company of the blessed, too! Don’t you?

__________________

“There is a God in heaven who over-rules all things for the best; and this is the comfort of my soul.” (David Brainerd)

 

Making Life Work: Take a moment to write out your unconditional trust in the Lord, a pre-commitment to his lovingkindness and sovereign care  in advance of any hardship that may come your way.

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Take Stock

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 39:1-13
Focus: Psalm 39:4

Show me, O LORD, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life.

One day you will have an epitaph chiseled on a headstone. If you doubt that, take a stroll through a cemetery and you’ll see that everyone gets one. Seriously, as morbid as it might sound, I’d highly recommend that stroll, because what you’ll read on those markers will tell a lot about the people buried beneath them.

On that stroll you will see the history of those dearly departed ones succinctly packaged by the dash between two dates—the date of their birth, and the date of their death. That dash is what we call life. One little dash, but what a story it tells. And often those who are left behind sum up the departed one’s dash with an inscription left on the headstone, an epitaph.

Some of those inscriptions are profound. Some express tremendous love or a deep sense of loss. Some are actually quite humorous. There are websites dedicated to the more memorable tombstones in history. Here are a few that might cause a chuckle:

“Owen Moore has passed away, Owin’ More than he could pay.”

“Here lies a man named Zeke. Second fastest draw in Cripple Creek.”

“I told you I was sick.”

Whether profound, heartwarming, heart wrenching, or even funny, each epitaph is quite instructive. Here’s one that not only made me laugh, it really made me think:

“This is what I expected—But not so soon.”

Epitaphs like that remind you of the unavoidable reality that one day you, too, will have your entire life summed up and chiseled onto a stone for others to read. There’s a New England headstone that captured this sobering truth:

“As you pass by and cast an eye,
As you are now so once was I.”

We will all have an epitaph some day. David, the author of this psalm got one…I will get one…you will get one. The only question is, what will yours say? So here’s the deal: Whatever you hope it will say means that you will have to live your life that way between now and then.

David, who was far from a perfect man, apparently did a great deal of thinking about the end of his life. That’s what this psalm is all about. And it really changed the way he lived out the rest of his dash, so much so that at the end of it, his friends wrote on his headstone:

“A Man After God’s Own Heart.”
(Acts 13:22)

Whatever you want your epitaph to say tomorrow will be determined by the kind of dash you live today.

__________________

“Let thy hope of heaven master thy fear of death. Why shouldest thou be afraid to die, who hopest to live by dying!” (William Gurnall)

 

Making Life Work: Hmmm! I think I’ll take some time—and while I’m at it, I’ll take some stock, too—in the kind of dash I am adding to day by day in the kind of life I am living every day of my life. Why don’t you join me?

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Sin Sick

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 38:1-22
Focus: Psalm 38:3

Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; my bones have no soundness because of my sin.

Is sickness the result of sin? My definitive answer is, maybe!

That question has been on the minds of people for ages. And for a good portion of human history, there was a perceived connection between bad behavior and the disfavor of the local god. Even in the history of the Old Testament Israelites, as well as in Christian history over the last two thousand years, the belief was that personal and corporate sin led to Divine punishment, including sickness.

It wasn’t until the last fifty years or so that we in the western world have come to the point of view that there is no spiritual-physical link between sin and sickness. And to be sure, the fact that I catch a cold, come down with the flu, or contract a disease does not imply that some egregious sin has been committed.

On the other hand, in a very real sense, all sickness is the result of sin—original sin. Romans 5:12 reminds us that because of one man’s sin—Adam—death entered the human race. And since by virtue of Adam’s sin we are all sinners—guess what? We will all experience death. And the dying process, which begins at birth, by the way, includes bouts with sickness along the way.

Having said all that, there is truth that sickness is sometimes the result of specific sin in our life. David understood that, and reading this psalm makes it pretty clear that he was associating unbearable physical pain, the symptoms of a debilitating illness, and excruciating emotional distress with the things he had done that had violated the laws of God.

I think we ought to be open to that possibility, too. I am not talking about living under a load of paralyzing guilt and spiritual paranoia—hopefully you know me well enough to realize I would never suggest that. God wants us to live in the blessed freedom of forgiveness, the delight of his unmerited favor, and incredible joy of the abundant life.

At the same time, we ought to be willing to live the examined life. We need to check in with God a lot, with trusted believers, too, and open our heart to the things that may be not only blocking the favor of God, but actively inviting his punishment. In Psalm 139:23-24, David invited the Divine searchlight to scrutinize the inner recesses of his life:

Search me, O 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.

By the way, there is no downside to letting God shine his light into your life!

__________________

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” (Socrates)

 

Making Life Work: There really is great freedom by taking an open and honest posture before both God and man. And not only that, it may just prove to be one of the best preventions for both physical and mental illness you will ever run into. Perhaps you should try it.

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Secret Of Success

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 37:1-40
Focus: Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

I love this verse. It’s one of my favorites. Here is the key to success in life—to fruitfulness and fulfillment in all you do. Not just to make things happen for yourself, but to actually have God working on your behalf to give you what you have set your heart to do.

But this is no automatic formula to riches, power and fame that David is talking about. In this verse itself is essential context that we must grasp and apply if we are to enter into the blessed life the psalmist goes on to describe. Furthermore, the entire chapter of Psalm 37 provided valuable insight that further explains verse 4. You and I would do well to read and absorb this whole psalm in context.

So let me give you a heads up on some of David’s caveats to the success he promises:

First, you’ve got to put God first and make him foremost in your life. Another way of putting it is that God must be both the center and circumference of your existence. I think that’s what David had in mind when he said, “Delight yourself in the Lord.”

God will not grant you willi nilli any old desire—that would be irresponsible of God and dangerous for you. But when you delight in God above all else, that in itself will shape the desires that arise in your heart and guard you from foolish, selfish, sinful and harmful wishes.

Second, you’ve got to delay gratification and practice patience. You will find in the rest of this psalm that over and over again David speaks of not getting in a rush to see the plan of God unfold in your life, and not getting caught up in the false success of those who are far from God. In due time, God will bring about his promised blessings. Here is how David sees it in verse 7:

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.

And third, you must refuse to cut corners and commit to a consistent walk of uprightness before God. If your life is characterized by incongruent living—saying one thing but doing another—don’t expect God’s deep and abiding favor. Though much of Psalm 37 is dedicated to this truth, notice in particular how David puts it in verses 18, 34 and 37:

The days of the blameless are known to the LORD,
and their inheritance will endure forever…
Wait for the LORD and keep his way.
He will exalt you to inherit the land;
when the wicked are cut off, you will see it….
Consider the blameless, observe the upright;
there is a future for the man of peace.

God wants to grant you success. And success as he defines it is far greater, longer lasting, and more satisfying that what the world offers. So delight yourself in the Lord, and you will find that the Lord delights himself in you!

__________________

“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.”—John Piper

 

 

Making Life Work: At some point, defining “the win” is a critical part to where we’re headed in life—and how we’re going to get there. Why not compose that definition right now? As you perceive it, define success; put your thoughts down on paper. Once you have done that, do it again, but this time, write out how you see the Bible defining success.  Include Scripture. Now, throw you definition away and begin to use God’s.  How can you possibly go wrong doing that?

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The Antidote For Spiritual ‘Road Rage’

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 36:1-12
Focus: Psalm 36:10

Continue your love to those who know you, your righteousness to the upright in heart.

I have to admit it—I was really ticked off! I was fighting back road-rage. I was considering intimidating the driver of the other car with hyper-close tailgating, or perhaps speeding up and cutting them off, or maybe even performing the dreaded PIT maneuver (and if you don’t occasionally watch “Cops”, you won’t have a clue what I’m talking about).

So what was my problem? Well, I was on the way to a birthday celebration—a friend had turned 90 this week—and the car in front of me had about every bumper sticker offensive to Christianity on it you could possibly imagine. Can you believe it! The one that sent me over the edge was next to the pirated “fish” symbol—you know, the one that has feet and the name Darwin on the inside of our beloved fish. Anyway, next to that was a bumper sticker that said, “We Have The Fossils—We Win.”

I was beginning to hum “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Stand Up For Jesus” and I would intermittently mumble, “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” (Judges 7:18) I was ready to pounce—in Jesus name, of course. But I didn’t do any of that. Rather, I eventually settled for calmingly passing the car that was causing my upset and giving its multi-pierced occupants my most righteous stare.

Drats! They didn’t even see me.

Okay, it wasn’t quite that bad, but I was more than a little ticked off. You get that way too, sometimes, when you see the unrighteous flaunting their disregard of God and their disrespect for Christians. And as followers of Christ, we sometimes long for the day God steps in and judges sin with a display of Divine justice that will leave no doubt—although when we consider the lives of the sinners we know and love, that prospect is rather frightening.

David was feeling that way in this psalm. Out of the twelve verses that make up Psalm 36, six are used to complain about the wicked (Psalm 36:1-4,11-12). But as David is venting, I think he comes to grips with the fact that there was not much, if anything, he could do about the evil residing in the hearts of those wicked people who were ticking him off. So, as he often does, he talks himself out of his “road rage” by focusing on the character of God—his love and faithfulness (Psalm 36:5), his righteousness and justice (Psalm 36:5), his protection and abundance (Psalm 36:7-8), and life itself (Psalm 36:9-10) that the godly find when they make the Almighty their sanctuary.

Oh, and one more thing, just for a bit of perspective: the Bible tells us there is none righteous, not even one. (Romans 3:10) I guess that would include you and me. So aren’t you glad God hasn’t given in to our venting about the unrighteous quite yet!

__________________

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.” (C.S. Lewis)

 

Making Life Work: Dwelling on the eternal character of God is the antidote to the spiritual road rage that threatens to consume us when we focus on the ephemeral nature of the sinner. You’d think I would get that by now—but I guess like David, I have to relearn it just about every other day. I’ll bet you do too!

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Out To Get You

Making Life Work
Read: Psalm 35:1-28
Focus: Psalm 35:1-5

Harass these hecklers, God, punch these bullies in the nose.
Grab a weapon, anything at hand; stand up for me!
Get ready to throw the spear, aim the javelin,
at the people who are out to get me.
Reassure me; let me hear you say,
“I’ll save you.”

I used to say, half-jokingly, to a ministry partner, “Man, you’re paranoid.” And his typical reply was, “That’s only because people are out to get me.”

The truth is, people are out to get you. That’s not paranoia, it’s just a fact of life. If you are breathing, you probably have a few enemies. I came to grips with that reality many years ago. There are some people who just don’t like me—for no particular reason. And somewhere along the way, you, too, would do well to accept that.

But it still stinks when you experience their dislike. And sometimes their dislike of you rises to proportions that create very real difficulty and serious disruption in your life. David was experiencing that, and he wrote about it in this psalm. We don’t know exactly from whom it was coming or why they had unleashed their nastiness on him in the form of anger, gossip, conniving and back-stabbing. And even though he had tried to be cordial and helpful to them (Psalm 35:12-14), they were bent on ruining his life.

So David unleashed on them—in the form of a prayer. And that is the real secret to dealing with the nasty people in your life. You will rarely win by going after them in kind. Anger, manipulation, gossip, face-to-face verbal showdowns, or force of will never have the effect of persuading them to lay down their weapons or suddenly see the error of their way and acknowledging that after all, you truly are God’s gift to humanity.

Prayer, however, works wonders. It puts your enemy squarely in the hands of the only one who can really do anything about them—God. Prayer enables you to drain the poison that is building up in your own life so it doesn’t debilitate you. Prayer allows you to pour out your complaint to God—and a funny thing usually happens when you’re doing that: As you are asking God to change the people who are causing you grief, God usually changes you. And best of all, prayer unleashes God’s power to bring about his plan for your situation—and that always has a far better outcome than your plan would have.

__________________

“In order to have an enemy, one must be somebody. One must be a force before he can be resisted by another force. A malicious enemy is better than a clumsy friend.” (Anne Sophie Switching)

 

Making Life Work:Yes, people are after you. That’s life! Take it to God. That’s wisdom!