Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Broken...and Loved

 

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.  Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.  Wash me clean from my guilt.  Purify me from my sin.  For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.  Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight.  You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.  For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.  But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.  Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.  You do not want a burnt offering.  The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.  You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.  Psalm 51:1-7, 16-17

This prayer of the Psalmist was written by King David after coming face to face with his own sinfulness.  David not only recognized his sin, he acknowledged it…in writing…for all generations to come.  This unrestrained honesty is raw and hard to come by.  We 21st century folk are more accustomed to finding “reasons” for why we have done what we’ve done…albeit mostly hollow excuses that even your dog wouldn’t swallow.  From politics to the workplace, and all the way home, even in church, none of us likes the idea of repenting, admitting, owning our rebellion against God, our Creator.  These days whatever’s wrong is everyone else’s fault.

 

And that may be the chief reason the culture in which we live is in such turmoil and circling the drain.  Each generation blames its’ predecessor, blindly glossing over the fact that in a few years they will be the blamed generation.

But perpetuately kicking the can of guilt down the road is where cowardice is formed as a national habit.  Where noone is willing to stand accountable, everyone suffers the rust that eats away the infrastructure of our souls.  We become teflon people, constantly denying the sin that so easily besets us – and increasingly so devours our conscience and ability to repent.  Our souls, weighted down with unacknowledged guilt that lives like WalMart plastic bags dumped in a landfill for a thousand years, take on the appearance of spiritual zombies…we’re existing, never living, ever rotting in the excuses that never cleansed anything.

There’s a good, sound, and repeatable reason for why David wrote out his confession and owned it.  To do so is to be reconciled – not only with the culpability we bear for our sins – but to be made right with the One against Whom we have sinned…to be forgiven by God. 

David went astray from his life’s purpose and he knew it.  He also knew that the only way back to genuine living (authenticity if you will) was to be forgiven, cleansed.  And the only door to that bath was locked without the key of repentance. 

For You Today

Your sins may be lesser or worse than David’s; it matters little, because one small sin, or many large ones, are still transgressions against the One who made us.  If you’re feeling a little stuck in life, running on empty in the joy department, and covered with questions that have no answers…there is a shower of cleansing for those who will go to God with a broken and contrite spirit.

How to do that?  It’s a conversation with God, an honest one, absent of excuses or lame claims that you didn’t know it was wrong.  You can have that conversation even when you’re broken…ESPECIALLY when you’re broken.  That’s because even when you are broken you are also loved. 

Is it time for that conversation?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!   

[1] Title and Other Images:  Pixabay.com  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©    



 

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