“We all have shadows and skeletons in our backgrounds. But
listen, there is something bigger in this world than we are and that something
bigger is full of grace and mercy,
patience and ingenuity. The moment the focus of your life shifts from your
badness to His goodness and the question becomes not “What have I done?” but
“What can He do?” release from remorse can happen; miracle of miracles, you can
forgive yourself because you are forgiven, accept yourself because you are
accepted, and begin to start building up the very places you once tore down.
There is grace to help in every time
of trouble. That grace is the secret
to being able to forgive ourselves. Trust it.” Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
Let’s talk about David.
I think that the life of David is one of the most stunning
examples of grace in the entire
Bible.
You’ve got this kid who is chosen by God at a very young age
and marked for greatness. He single-handedly defeats an army that has been
tormenting the Israelites for who-knows-how-long. He is incredibly successful. He rules all of Israel for decades. The
Bible says time and time again that God was with David. He had a long and prosperous life. He is in the lineage of
Christ.
And most importantly, he is the only person in the entire
Bible that is referred to as a “man after God’s own heart.” Wow. Can you
imagine? That’s quite a statement. It sounds like David had it all together
spiritually. I’m sure he had pretty consistent quiet times, writing psalms,
singing, praying, and pouring his heart out to God. Right? He had to have been
a pretty holy guy for God to have spoken so highly about him.
And yet.
Well into his life, into his ministry, into his relationship with
God, he messed up. By human standards he committed two of the largest, most
heinous sins: adultery and murder.
But this guy LOVED GOD!!! Didn’t he? Maybe that is the wrong
question. Maybe what I should be asking is:
Don’t I love God?
Still, in the midst of that, no one questions his love for
the Lord and desire to please and serve Him. No one says, “David was a man
after God’s own heart except for when all
of that stuff with Bathsheba was going on.” It does say that he did what
was pleasing to God and kept His commands except in the case of Bathsheba (1
Kings 15:5), but it does not say anything about the posture of his heart being
any different during that time.
Nope. Not what it says.
David was still a lover of the Lord, even though he made
some pretty bad decisions. His sin and indiscretion did not disqualify him from
going after the heart of God. We are human. Stuff happens. No one is exempt from
this. “For ALL have sinned,” (Romans 3:23); “for NO ONE is righteous; NO ONE
understands, NO ONE seeks God.” (Romans 3:10.)
I hope that people can see the same thing in me. That yes, I
love and follow the Lord and desire to please Him more than anything else. But
yes, I also fail and fall and choose my flesh and am human. In the midst of
that mess, it doesn’t change my heart for God. Instead, it pushes me to further
acknowledge my desperate need for a Savior, and know that I can do nothing but
accept with open hands and a grateful heart the incredible gift of His grace.
“The poor man and woman of the gospel have made peace with
their flawed existence. They are aware of their lack of wholeness, their
brokenness, the simple fact that they don’t have it all together. While they do
not excuse their sin, they are humbly aware that sin is precisely what has
caused them to throw themselves at the mercy of the Father. They do not pretend
to be anything but what they are: sinners saved by grace.” Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin
Gospel
[Stay tuned for the rest of the series that I am doing on the concept of grace and what avenue He has been using to teach me these lessons.]
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