King David’s life showed us a number of ways to do things that please God.
The shepherd/warrior also showed us a number of ways to displease God.
Of course, we want every day of our lives to be characterized by the former, not the latter.
But, sadly, our pride sometimes gets in the formula and we fail.
We displease God.
You do.
I do.
So what then?
What do we do when we’ve fallen short of the glory of God, when we’ve missed the mark, when we’ve disobeyed the pattern for living that God provides in the Bible?
We tell God we’re sorry, that’s what, and actually mean it.
We repent.
God doesn’t let us off the hook in terms of consequences, but He does let us off the hook of condemnation.
You’re quite familiar with the costs of David’s adultery.
David had another major mess-up in 2 Samuel 24 (you’ll want to read this passage by clicking here).
It was driven by a combination of pride of how many men he had in his army and by fear of other nations and the desire to know that he had enough military strength to make up for his lack of trust in God.
David had opportunity to avoid the sin, but he stubbornly proceeded until the desire had given birth to sin.
Then his conscience’s voice was finally heard:
“But after he had taken the census, David’s conscience began to bother him. And he said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly by taking this census. Please forgive my guilt, Lord, for doing this foolish thing.’” (2 Samuel 24:10)
So when you have sinned by doing _______________ and your conscience begins to bother you (though you ignored it before), do you think the words of verse 10?
Are the words, “‘I have sinned greatly by ________________. Please forgive my guilt, Lord, for doing this foolish thing” on the lips of your heart?
We each need to sin less often and hopefully our faith is maturing and we are becoming more like Christ. But when transgression does occur, let’s do what David did.
Let’s repent.
I John 1:9 tells us that God WILL forgive us if we confess our sins.
What a great promise for giving us hope despite our weakness for failure.
As always, I love you
Martin
