I’ve been keeping a blog for over four years now. This afternoon, I was looking back through some older entries. I came across this one from August 27, 2002, and thought I would like to share it again.
The
heart of God is always restoration, not condemnation. Isn’t that a
beautiful thing to know? When we have blown it, when we have failed
once again, when we have taken the wrong road, God wants to forgive us
and help us get back to Him. A number of years ago, I wasted a great
deal of time, carting around guilt for the wrong choices I had made,
for the sins that I’d confessed to the Lord but couldn’t forgive myself
for. The lessons God taught me resulted in the book, The Shepherd’s Voice.
This
week, going deeper from the sermon my pastor preached on Sunday, I’m
looking at another shepherd who "blew it" — King David, a man after
God’s own heart. Psalm 51 shows how (after he’d committed adultery and
murder) David had a change of heart (vs 3-4a), a change of mind (vs
4b), and a change of direction (vs 7-13) so that he might be restored
to right relationship with God. David still had to live with the
natural consequences of his actions (we are not always rescued from
those), but he was clean in God’s eyes. What did David do after he was
restored? He consistently spent time in prayer (vs 11a); he sought the
power of the Holy Spirit in his life (vs 11b); he asked God for a sense
of joy (vs 12a); he asked God for the power to be consistent (vs 12b);
and he looked for the chance to help others (vs 13). Oh, that I would
do the same!
Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a right spirit within me.
Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me again the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
Then I will teach your ways to sinners,
and they will return to you. (Ps 51:10-13, NLT)
God
wants the sacrifice of a broken spirit and a repentant heart (vs 17),
but He doesn’t want us to remain in brokenness. He wants us to be whole
and restored. There is such beauty in that truth.
In the grip of His grace,
Robin
