- Joined
- Apr 25, 2006
- Messages
- 18,404
Today's Passage: Psalm 51 v 1-4
God, be merciful to me because you are loving. Because you are always ready to be merciful, wipe out all my wrongs.
Wash away all my guilt and make me clean again.
I know about my wrongs, and I can't forget my sin.
You are the only one I have sinned against; I have done what you say is wrong. You are right when you speak and fair when you judge.
Notes
The whole of Psalm 51 shows us David pleading with God for forgiveness after he was caught in adultery with Bathsheba. Lent starts tomorrow and is traditionally a time when we focus on our own unworthiness, and reassess our lives, behaviour and attitudes in the light of God's commands and will for us.
So, how do you shape up at the start of this process? I expect most of us think that either we're the absolute pits (like David) or that we're not really that bad (or not as bad as David anyway!). I recently read a very helpful illustration in a book called "Dinner with a Perfect Stranger" by David Gregory. It went something like this:
Imagine a credit card with Sadam Hussain at the bottom and Mother Theresa at the top, on that scale, where do you place yourself? Done that?
OK - now imagine the credit card standing at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, then God is at the top of the tower!
This illustration reminds us that in the only scale that matters, there is little difference between Mother Theresa, us or Sadam Hussain, we have all sinned and fall way short of God's standards, but in his love and mercy he reaches down from the top of the tower and forgives us. What amazing grace.
Prayer
Father, thank you for your amazing gift of grace that reaches down to love and forgive me, and thank you that you paid the price for that grace in the death of your Son. Help me to recognise that in your eyes there are no such things as "big" or "little" sins, and to confess before you all the things that I do which are wrong, and then to accept and receive your complete forgiveness. Amen
God, be merciful to me because you are loving. Because you are always ready to be merciful, wipe out all my wrongs.
Wash away all my guilt and make me clean again.
I know about my wrongs, and I can't forget my sin.
You are the only one I have sinned against; I have done what you say is wrong. You are right when you speak and fair when you judge.
Notes
The whole of Psalm 51 shows us David pleading with God for forgiveness after he was caught in adultery with Bathsheba. Lent starts tomorrow and is traditionally a time when we focus on our own unworthiness, and reassess our lives, behaviour and attitudes in the light of God's commands and will for us.
So, how do you shape up at the start of this process? I expect most of us think that either we're the absolute pits (like David) or that we're not really that bad (or not as bad as David anyway!). I recently read a very helpful illustration in a book called "Dinner with a Perfect Stranger" by David Gregory. It went something like this:
Imagine a credit card with Sadam Hussain at the bottom and Mother Theresa at the top, on that scale, where do you place yourself? Done that?
OK - now imagine the credit card standing at the bottom of the Eiffel Tower, then God is at the top of the tower!
This illustration reminds us that in the only scale that matters, there is little difference between Mother Theresa, us or Sadam Hussain, we have all sinned and fall way short of God's standards, but in his love and mercy he reaches down from the top of the tower and forgives us. What amazing grace.
Prayer
Father, thank you for your amazing gift of grace that reaches down to love and forgive me, and thank you that you paid the price for that grace in the death of your Son. Help me to recognise that in your eyes there are no such things as "big" or "little" sins, and to confess before you all the things that I do which are wrong, and then to accept and receive your complete forgiveness. Amen
