Dealing With Our Sin

 

Psalm 51:10-12 “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” (NIV)

Have you ever lost some one person or thing that meant everything to you? It takes time for the magnitude and severity of this type of loss to sink into our psyche and absorb our full attention and feelings. It is one of the most painful moments man can realize, when he understands that someone or something that meant everything to him has been lost, and he is suffering the consequences. If you don’t exactly know what I mean, then read Psalm 51, in which David petitions God in repentance and confession after the prophet Nathan confronted David on his sins of adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah the Hittite, her husband, in a feeble effort to cover up his sin with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12).

David was so much in a state of denial that he was ready to kill anyone that would do such an uncaring and hurtful deed, after hearing Nathan’s story of a rich man who stole the prized ewe lamb of a poor man for his own selfish use. Then Nathan made it clear as to who the culprit was in this story to David: “You are the man!” David, full of a guilt load in his life, knew exactly what Nathan was charging, and with that David crumbled in spirit and admitted, “I have sinned against the Lord.” David’s credibility, his moral authority with his family and nation, and his intimate relationship with his God, had all been sacrificed for his own selfish lusts.

When you are deep into remorse, guilt, and helplessness, remember what David did: pray to God for mercy, forgiveness of transgressions, cleansing of all sin, and physical health to be made whole by God. When we have lost our intimate relationship with God because of our own self-induced mistakes and stubborn attitude of rebellion, we must immediately seek God out in prayer and beg his forgiveness. Always remember, a truly penitent person never belittles his wrong nor exaggerates it, but he admits God is all in the right and he or she is all in the wrong. Never offer excuses, because if you’re stuck on excuses you do not have a penitent heart, and your prayers will be ineffective.

But David well understood that he had lost spiritual closeness with God, and he grieved it in his heart and sought reconciliation with his God. David admitted that this sin and every sin are ultimately against God, and that sin literally rips at that relationship which was so essential to David’s well-being. When we fall and fail as David did, only God can make up that difference. We see this illustrated in our devotional text where David asks for the restoration of his spiritual relationship with God. A man or woman’s personal loss can never be greater than this. Take note of what David prays for to gain a full sense of what had been lost to him, and is also lost to us in our deliberate and continuous sin against our God:

1. Create a pure heart in me. – We all must have a pure heart to live in a sin soaked world if we are to be light and salt to a lost mankind.
2. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. – We can only be steadfast and consistent in our Christian walk if our spirit is controlled by the Holy Spirit of God living on the inside of us.
3. Keep me in your presence. – The awesome presence of God is a great gift, blessing, and source of strength, and we can only be aware of his presence if the Holy Spirit is living on the inside of us, and this will only be the case when we take our sins to God in repentant prayer.
4. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. – The awesome assurance of our soul salvation is designed by God to allow us to be certain of our relationship with him, allowing us in a fallen world to do the Lord’s business. Only God can give us that willing spirit that will persevere through thick and thin in this life, when we are tempted by doubt and compromise.

When we study what David prayed for in our devotional text, we begin to realize how much he had lost. We too must be aware that our sin stain separates us from God, and returning to him in prayerful repentance seeking restoration to him is our only choice for happiness, joy, peace, and success in this world.

FATHER, WHEN I REALIZED THAT I HAVE SINNED AGAINST YOU, I WILL TURN TO YOU WITH A REPENTANT HEART TO SEEK YOUR FORGIVENESS  GRACE, AND POWER TO OVERCOME THE EVIL ONE AND LIVE VICTORIOUSLY BEFORE THE WORLD. AMEN!

Dealing With Our Sin with Mike White @ Summit church of Christ