Friday, May 11, 2018

 
 
 
 
Devotional for Friday, May 11, 2018
“The Power of Forgiveness”
 
by Dona Hake
 
“How happy is the person whose sin the Eternal will not take into account. How happy are those who no longer lie to themselves or others. When I refused to admit my wrongs, I was miserable, moaning and complaining all day long so that even my bones felt brittle. Day and night, Your hand kept pressing on me. My strength dried up like water in the summer heat; You wore me down. [pause] When I finally saw my own lies, I owned up to my sins before You, and I did not try to hide my evil deeds from You. I said to myself, “I’ll admit all my sins to the Eternal,” and You lifted and carried away the guilt of my sin. [pause]
Psalm 32:1-5 – The Voice
 
While you can hear the sorrow here in David’s words, there is such a precious beauty in the heart of one that desires to be right with God.  Yesterday I shared about God‘s hand upon us to lead us, encourage us and even stop us when we are about to get off the path that He desires for us to walk in. Here in this translation David said he was miserable, he moaned and complained until he felt it was affecting his health and the strength of his bones. Then he said, “Day and night, Your hand kept pressing on me.”   Once again, we see God’s hand at work. God did not let up on David as He dealt with David in the depths of his heart.  David saw his heart with its lies, and he owned up to his sin before God…from there his true repentance and forgiveness happened.
 
Oh the beauty of admitting when we have sinned and done wrong. As we acknowledge our sin and we do not attempt to  cover it up, the Lord is quick to forgive and wash away our sin and its guilt . To confess our sin is to agree with God, acknowledging that His ways are right and to declare what we have done is sinful, and that we are wrong to desire to do it.God loves when we confess to Him anything that would keep us from him in order that we may follow him more faithfully.  Oh I am so thankful for the blood of our Lord Jesus that we can walk free from the guilt of our sin.   God is so good!