By Pastor Greg
The other day I had a debate with
someone who accused me of being a good man.
She insisted that I behaved better than many of the other people she
meets. She said I was kind and
polite. That made me a good man. She said I was a good man because I genuinely
care about the problems she and her colleagues were facing. I pray for them, and that makes me a good
man. I was a minister; therefore, I was
a good man. Of course, I argued that she
only saw the way I behaved. She didn’t
see the real me.
I get real uncomfortable when
someone puts me on a pedestal. One wrong
move or if I allow my life to get off balance for just a moment, I come
crashing down off that pedestal, disappointing those who have placed me
there. This is why I argued with
Tina. I didn’t want her to view me as
some superhero of morality. However, the
more I thought and prayed about this conversation, I wondered if what she was
saying just might be true. Maybe I’m not
such a bad fellow after all.
I have a tendency to think back
and remember the mistakes I have made in my life. I can remember the times I disappointed my
parents. I remember being disciplined by
my father. He lectured me. He scolded me. He challenged me to see people in a different
way. He made me think about the
consequences of my words and my actions.
He insisted I go to church. The
point is, dad expected certain things from me.
He wanted to see me become a good man.
If Tina is right, then apparently that is what happened. Because of my father’s instruction and
discipline, I am a better person than I was.
I was corrected when I made a mistake.
I was punished for disobedience.
I was taught to be honest, loving, and caring. It may have taken a while, but it might just
be possible that I am finally learning what my father had been teaching all
along.
God does the same.
Consider the life of King
David. As God looked at this young man,
He said, “I have
found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I
want him to do” (Acts 13:22).
Yet even David needed to be disciplined.
For example, in a moment of passion, David has an affair with the wife
of one of his soldiers. He arranges for
the soldier to be killed in battle.
Therefore, his Father in Heaven scolds David. God disciplines David. Speaking through Nathan the Prophet, God
confronts David’s sin. David’s response
to this discipline is found in Psalm 51.
1 “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your
unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my
sins. 2 Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin. 3 For
I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. 4 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. 5 For
I was born a sinner— yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. 6 But
you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there. 7 Purify
me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Oh,
give me back my joy again; you have broken me— now let me rejoice. 9 Don’t
keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. 10 Create
in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. 11 Do
not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore
to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. 13 Then
I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you. 14 Forgive
me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your
forgiveness. 15 Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may
praise you. 16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer
one. You do not want a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifice you
desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O
God. 18 Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls
of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right
spirit— with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again
be sacrificed on your altar.”
I am struck by David’s attitude. He realized that his sin caused a break in
his relationship with God. God wanted
David to become a better man. This is
why God did not hesitate to show David what he had done wrong. God lectured David. He disciplined David. He made David think about the consequences of
his actions. God taught David to be
honest, loving, and caring. Although it
took a while, David realized that his behavior was destroying his relationship
with God. So David admits his
mistake. He comes to God and says, “You
are right. I have sinned. I have done something evil”. Then David prays that God would forgive him.
David gives us a tremendous example of
biblical prayer. You see, sometimes the
storm of guilt we feel raging in our heart is God trying to help us become a
better person. God corrects us because
He loves us. He understands that our sin
interferes with the relationship we have with Him. This is why He corrects. He corrects us so that we might become a
better person – a person who is honest, loving, and caring.
What we learn from David’s prayer is
that if we confess our sin and admit our guilt – if we admit that God is right
– God will show us mercy. He will
forgive us. God will wash us and make us
whiter than snow. We also learn that the
reason behind this guilt – the reason God has shown us what behavior is sinful
– is that He desires to give us a clean heart.
God desires to be with us and near us, but in our sinfulness, the
relationship is broken. We also learn
that by allowing God to wash us and cleanse us (to teach us and instruct us to
become a better person than we were), others will begin to see the results of
our open relationship with God. People
like Tina will see the results of our relationship with God.
[Just as a side note, this
relationship is what Satan is attempting to destroy. He did this in the garden with Eve and
Adam. He destroyed the relationship by
changing God’s rules. He told Eve, “That’s not what God said” (Genesis
3:4-5). And by changing God’s words, Eve
and Adam sinned. That sin, of course,
broke their relationship with God. Some
people are doing the same thing today.
They attempt to change what God has said. They remove certain sins from God Word. What
they are attempting to do is no different from what Satan did – seduce us into
sinning so our relationship with God is broken.]
Today, God has given us the Holy
Spirit to convict us when we sin (John 16:8).
However, the purpose behind this conviction is to bring us back to the
Father. This conviction often times
feels like a storm. David said it felt
like his joy had been stripped away (Psalm 51:12). It’s like that gnawing feeling you get in
your gut when you’ve done something wrong and you worry how dad is going to
react. You didn’t want to, but you made
a bad choice. Dad will be upset, so you
avoid him. You won’t talk to him.
However, until you resolve the issue, your relationship with your dad will not
be the same. It’s the same with God. Your relationship with God will not be same
until you confess what you have done wrong.
This is why it is essential that we
pray when we’ve done something wrong.
Prayer is the way we build our relationship with God. And it is through prayer that our
relationship is healed. In addition (and
this is the surprising part) people will begin to notice you’ve changed. They will begin to see the results of a close
relationship with your Heavenly Father.
They might even pull you aside and call you a good person. I know, you will be tempted to argue with
them, but maybe they are right. Maybe by
allowing God to teach us and correct us, we do become a better person in the
end.
If my earthly father could teach
me a thing or two about being a good person, I imagine my Heavenly Father could
do this as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment