sorrow=repentance=change

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...Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. (Psalms 51:1-13, 17 NLT)

I love the transparency of David!  At some point in the Psalms David displays everyone emotion known to man.  He struggled with the same sins and temptations we struggle with today, those Paul described in Galatians 5:19-23.

David also knew the key to not living, not remaining or making this sin his lifestyle by choice, was being open and transparent before God and others; recognizing that at the very core of our sinful nature is rebellion against God; and not remaining in the guilt of the past.  The above Psalm was penned after his adultery with Bathsheba and subsequent murder of her husband to hide the sin.  

Hidden sin will always remain a stumbling block to any recovery and restoration.  Sharing how God has worked through it is critical to our freedom.  Too often we fall short of this freedom because of fear from what others might think or do.  Sometimes freedom comes from the hand of confrontation.

Being remorseful (sorrow) is the doorway leading to repentance, never the end result.  Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 7:9-10

"...the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have...For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death."

Acknowledgment of sin = sorrow = repentance = change.  Sorrow is not repentance.  Sorrow is a feeling; repentance is an action which results in change.  David experienced and lived this process.  Was he perfect?  No, his sin brought consequences to his household for generations to come.  But because he choose true repentance over just sorrow God called him "a man after my own heart." 

Kingdom surrender

Our surrender (or lack of) today will affect our freedom for tomorrow.
I recently heard this line in a song and can't seem to get it out of my mind because it carries such a powerful truth.

The question that begs to be asked is who or what do we surrender to?  Everyday we are faced with situations when walked through reveal our true hearts allegiance.
Everyday we are asked to surrender to kingdoms not always ruling with our best interest in mind. Wall Street sets the tone for financial kingdoms; Hollywood for moral kingdoms and Washington for political kingdoms.

There is another kingdom that tends to get lost amidst the struggle and pulling of theses others--yet this kingdom is the only one with true power and authority. This kingdom works in direct opposition of the others, it's values are in direct opposition of the others, it's longevity will outlast any and it's throne will only ever have one ruler.

This kingdom admonishes its dwellers to give when the others say amass your wealth; give unending forgiveness when the others keep score; demands undivided loyalty while the others encourage prostitution of oneself to gain the world.  This kingdom is ruled by love when the others are ruled by greed; gives its dwellers power and authority to move obstacle-mountains while the others create obstacle-mountains with its power and authority.

This kingdoms guidebook never changes while the other kingdoms have no clue which version they are currently following.
Do the other rulers realize when they gather together the ruler of this kingdom is present and privy to all theirs plans, spoken and unspoken?  That he has the power to override their decisions and actions and often does.

This kingdom has no end while the others will one day come to an abrupt ending. This kingdom is the only one that gives true freedom at the cost of undivided surrender.

This kingdom is called the Kingdom of God and is here, now, invading all other kingdoms.  It's inhabitants have opportunities every day to infiltrate and wreck havoc in the other kingdoms rulings...but do they?  Do the inhabitants of this kingdom really take seriously the promise of its ruler, "whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these...You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it" (John 14:12, 14 NIV) or fully understand, "It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies"? (Zechariah 4:6 NLT)

United we stand, divided we fall was the battle cry of our country's early patriots. It is the battle cry today of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said, “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall." (Luke 11:17 NIV)
Divided loyalties always result in confusion and wimpy power if any.

Whose kingdom will you and I give our loyalty to today?  Surrender is always a cost of loyalty.  What will that loyalty cost us and will it bring true freedom?

Empyting

I’ve been reading a book about emptying oneself in order to make room for what God wants to do in and through our lives.  Must admit the self reflection has been revealing and emotionally exhausting at times.  Yet there has been, and is continuing to be, a cleansing very much like the summer rains I used to run in as a kid.  Did you ever do that?  Remember the fresh gentle rain falling on your warm skin?  Remember the relief from the heat and rejuvenation that came with the rain?  It recharged us to the point we could have run around until midnight with the energy that came from those rains.

This same kind of cleansing can come when we honestly ask the Lord to reveal things we have not let go from our past or dreams and hopes we are tight-fistedly holding onto for our future.  The wounds we never allow to heal from our past prevent us from using those as lessons in order to turn our past into opportunities to help someone else that is going through the same difficulty today.  The hopes and dreams we have do not need to hold our present in bondage if we allow the Lord to have those.  The harder we grip the less energy we have to live our today.  The harder we manipulate and work to have those dreams come to pass, the less we enjoy living our today.  We will never truly know if those dreams are planted in our hearts by the Lord until we release and allow God to fulfill his timing and his purposes in our lives. 

For me, I am learning there is a freedom in realizing I don’t have to know my future but rather trust that God will direct my current today to join paths with my future hopes and dreams.  Today I want to be open and prepared to hear God speak or see Him move in me and those around me.  Who knows, someone I come across today just may be that divine appointment from God to give clarity of his purposes for either me or them. 

Don’t dismiss the ‘outside’ appearance of a chance meeting.  God sometimes uses the most unlikely candidates to speak into each other’s life.

Philippians 1:6,2:3-4; 3:13; Jeremiah 29:11

Bold confidence

Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.  Our actions will show that we belong to the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before God. Even if we feel guilty, God is greater than our feelings, and he knows everything.

Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence.  And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him.

And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us.  Those who obey God’s commandments remain in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Spirit he gave us lives in us.

1 John 3:18b-24

Truth is our foundation for confidence, not our feelings or emotions.  When our ‘house’ is built on this solid foundation the winds of doubt, discouragement, fear, disbelief, etc. will not destroy it.  This bold confidence does not come with a spirit of arrogance in demanding our own way or dictating to God what he should do in any given situation.  Rather it is a spirit of freedom in whom and whose we are that brings an innocence of trust, of hope and of expectation. 

David said in Psalm 5:3,7 “Listen to my voice in the morning, Lord.  Each morning I bring my requests to you and wait expectantly. Because of your unfailing love, I can enter your house; I will worship at your Temple with deepest awe.”

David didn’t live under the freedom of grace that we do today, his was a covenant of laws and regulations that brought death and guilt not life.  Yet David proclaimed this bold confidence not in his feelings or emotions but the truth of God’s unfailing love towards him. 

Today, if you believe in the name of Jesus Christ and call yourself his follower no matter the circumstances you find yourself in start building your house on truth not feelings…on hope and confidence not fear and guilt.