The New You

Today’s Bible readings are Numbers 10:1-11:23, Mark 14:1-21, Psalm 51:1-19, & Proverbs 10:31-32

Psalm 51:10-12

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

What a true heart of repentance that we see in David as he penned this psalm under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. He was at a low in his life. He had sinned greatly by committing adultery with Bathsheba. He had one of his loyal men killed to cover it up. He tried to cover up his sin but God revealed it through His prophet. David was filled with shame & condemnation.

We are all too familiar with these types of situations. It may not be that we have committed adultery, but the shame & condemnation I something that we can all relate to. These are 2 of the heaviest blows that the enemy uses to beat us down with. He was doing a number on David at this particular moment, much like he does on us.

1.      You’re a failure.

2.      You are such a fake.

3.      You will never recover from this one.

4.      There is no hope for you now.

5.      Nobody is ever going to forget this.

6.      You may as well just quit.

7.      God is never going to forgive you.

These are all the things that satan will whisper to us. He wants us to agree with him concerning these things. When we agree with them, we start speaking them in our own minds. We begin to say to ourselves:

1.      I’m a failure.

2.      I’m a phony.

3.      This is the end.

4.      There is no hope for me.

5.      I will never get past this.

6.      I may as well quit.

7.      God could never forgive me.

David knew the pain of being in torment from satan with the chains of guilt & shame. He had been wrestling with the sorrow for months. The guilt was wasting him away. He cried out to God for deliverance. The Lord heard his cry.

Psalm 51:10-12

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. ¹¹ Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. ¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

His heart had become tainted with sin & condemnation. He was so concerned with what he needed to do next to keep things hidden that he could no longer serve God the way that he once did. He needed to be cleansed from the unrighteousness.

Joy had long since passed from his life. The only thing that remained was the constant fear of being found out. The weight of that burden was crushing him. All joy was gone. He so desperately missed the joy that he was so familiar to.

This may sound like your story. I want to encourage you today. God wants you back! His grace is greater than anything that you could ever do or have ever done. He forgave David. This happened before the blood of Christ was even shed. Now that the precious blood of Jesus has been shed we too can experience His grace to wash, cleanse, & restore. There is NOTHING that His blood can’t wash away. There is NOTHING his blood can’t redeem. There is NOTHING that his blood can make new.

God wants you to know that it was removed as soon as you confessed it to Him & put it under the blood of His Son. Stop talking about. Stop going back to what He has freed you from. There is no need to fear what you have been released from. You are forgiven.

1.      The affair is finished.

2.      The divorce is behind you.

3.      The relapse is history.

4.      The past is the past.

 

It is time to move on. It is time to go forward. It is time to renew your mind. God has given you another chance. The only way that it will work out for His glory is if you stop letting your past dictate your present & your future. God has cleansed you. You are restored. His Spirit is in you. His presence is with you. Joy is coming. Receive it in Jesus name.

Pastor Richard Schlotter