Devotions

It is well known that King David fell into horrible sin, committing adultery and covering it up with murder. Moreover, we know David was full of the Holy Spirit, so he must have been miserable.

The prophet Nathan confronted him, saying, "You have brought reproach on God's name." David could only go for so long carrying the weight of the horrible acts he had perpetrated and he immediately confessed and repented. Even as he was still weeping Nathan assured him, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die” (2 Samuel 12:13).

Yet, hearing that assurance wasn't enough for David. You see, it is one thing to be forgiven and quite another to be free and clear with the Lord. David knew that forgiveness was the easy part. Now he wanted to get things right with God, to be able to get his joy back. So he cried, "Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me" (Psalm 51:11).

Psalm 51 was written as David remembered the merciful, longsuffering nature of the Lord. In the opening verse he appeals to God's tender forgiveness: "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions."

David knew just what to do. He cried out! "This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles" (34:6).

"The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry. . . The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles" (Psalm 34:15 and 17).

Dear saint, your victory over every battle is learning to possess this confidence: No matter how grievously you have fallen, you serve a Lord who is ready to forgive. Indeed, he is anxious to heal you. He possesses more lovingkindness toward you than you could ever need.

Because I want all the peoples of the world to know the reality of Jesus, I spend a great deal of time traveling around the world in ministry. And then when I return home, I pray that every Christian would know Jesus too!

I hope you got the joke — but you need to know I’m only half joking. Our lives as followers of Christ are not about an identifiable religion, but about a knowable Person, Jesus. There is a huge difference.

The Bible tells us three things work against us in our walk with Christ: the world, our flesh and the devil (see Ephesians 6:12). I’ve wondered, “Why isn’t religion included in that list since it works against our relationship with Jesus, too?” Then I realized religion is in all three!

When I use the word “religion,” I really mean religiosity. This is the idea that we place religion — our theological beliefs and practices — at the center of our lives instead of the loving God. It’s in Jesus that we live, breathe and have our being, not a system of beliefs or works.

When you look at it that way, religion becomes an expression of our flesh, meaning our sin nature. Our flesh uses religion as a front to resist repenting and makes us feel good about ourselves. My Uncle Don Wilkerson calls this “front-sliding.” Backsliding is when people fall away from Jesus by turning to gross sins. Front-sliding is falling in the other direction, turning toward religion and away from Jesus.

Let’s face it, being religious may be more comfortable than being full of the love of Jesus, just because being led by his love can make us seem a little crazy to the world.

Please don’t misunderstand me when I say we’re to hate religion. What I mean is we’re to hate those things that lead to spiritual death rather than to true life in Christ. Hating religion doesn’t mean loving your flesh; it means loving Jesus more.

There are many reasons why God is silent, but I am going to touch on something he recently put on my heart. Sometimes God may be silent simply because he has already spoken to you! If you think about it, how can you accuse God of being silent when he has left you sixty-six letters, thousands of verses? There is no need for him to repeat himself. Aren’t you glad that the book of Genesis doesn’t say, “God said, ‘Let there be light. Let there be light’”?

If you and I had been there on that first day when God said, “Let there be light,” we would have been dancing and rejoicing from 6 o’clock in the morning until about 6 o’clock in the evening.

But suddenly, when it starts to get dark, we begin to panic. “Oh, no, I knew it wouldn’t last! I knew the light was going to go away. Maybe we’ve done something wrong. Maybe we weren’t reading the Word enough.”

The light fades away, and we spend the next twelve hours in sorrow — until the light reappears, and we realize that when God said, “Let there be light,” he didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be night; that there wouldn’t be seasons when we cannot see. He didn’t mean that we would always be able to understand everything that is going on in the heavenly realm. However, the light always reappears, and we see that what God spoke continues to be fulfilled without his having to speak again.

One reason God may be silent is because there is an appointed time for his Word to be fulfilled. One example of this in the Bible is Joseph, who was given the incredible promise that he was going to reign one day. He was going to be a man through whom great provision would be unlocked. However, there was an appointed time for the fulfillment of the promise and he had to follow God’s plan.

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001. 

The Bible promises that it is possible to understand the Lord's lovingkindness. What is that key? King David said, “Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the Lord” (Psalm 107:43).

David received an awesome revelation of God's gracious, forgiving heart. And he discovered it simply by looking at God's past record of dealing with his beloved children. David reports it this way:

"Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their distresses. And He led them forth by the right way. . . . Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" (Psalm 107:5–8).

When the children of Israel wandered away from the Lord, they became hungry, thirsty and lost because of sin. But then they cried out to the Lord and what happened? "He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness” (107:9).

Yet again they rebelled and backslid, falling even lower. Again we read: "Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble . . . He sent His word and healed them" (107:19-20).

Finally, God's people again came to their wits' end. A storm raged and their souls melted with trouble: "Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble, and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm, so that its waves are still" (107:28-29).

David responded to this revelation, "Look how easily God's heart is moved. Oh, how quickly he responds to the cries of his children. There is no end to his mercies."

Beloved, you don't have to continue in agony and guilt. Instead, go to the Lord, cry out and confess to him. He is a tender Father who is touched by your every cry.

The foundation for all victory over sin is the understanding that God is tender and full of kindness and love.

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth’” (Jeremiah 9:23–24).

If you have walked with the Lord for any length of time, you probably have encouraged others that God is gracious and forgiving. Now, let me ask you: When you fail the Lord, is it suddenly a different matter? Do you find yourself working through terrible feelings of guilt and shame?

You may say, "Shouldn't we experience that when we sin?" Indeed, those feelings are the natural result of sin. But as children of God we are not supposed to continue for days and weeks thinking that our Father is mad at us. Because of Christ's provision on the cross, all guilt and condemnation may be lifted quickly.

Still, even after we've repented, we may feel we have to make up our failures to the Lord. Like the Prodigal Son, we can have the Father hugging us, putting a ring on our finger and a robe on our back. He tells us to forget the past and enjoy the feast he has prepared for us.

But inside we protest, "I’m not worthy! I've sinned against the Lord. I've got to show him I'm sorry."

Many Christians find it easy to believe that God forgave Israel's gross sins. We have no trouble accepting that he forgave Nineveh in the Old Testament and the dying thief in the New Testament. But, oddly, it's hard for us to grasp that the moment we turn to him in repentance he quickly and lovingly accepts us as if we had never sinned.