It is Only Through Authentic Humility That We Can Seek Forgiveness

Today's Reading
2 Samuel Chps 13-24

Of course I sin...I am disobedient to the core.  Yet even worse, I am arrogant.  I expect forgiveness...and I often don't even ask for it.   How am I truly to be set free and forgiven if I do not humble myself before the Lord and truly seek His forgiveness.  While David has his moments, he most of the time is humble man, truly remorseful of his sin.  Here towards the end of his reign and life, he seeks to make atonement for his wrongs against God:

“I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” (2 Samuel 24:10)

And as God carries out His wrath against Israel because of David's wrongs, David once againt prostrates himself:

“I have sinned; I, the shepherd,^[c] have done wrong. These are but sheep. What have they done? Let your hand fall on me and my family.” (2 Samuel 24:17)

And again, David humbles himself to the point where he is not above anyone and he pays his fellow countryman Araunah to purchase (vs seizing it) a threshing floor to be used to build an altar.

So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen and paid fifty shekels of silver for them. ²⁵ David built an altar to the LORD there and sacrificed burnt offerings and fellowship offerings. Then the LORD answered his prayer in behalf of the land, and the plague on Israel was stopped. (2 Samuel 24: 24-25)

 
My Prayer: Lord, you are love, compassion, and mercy.  You create these things as an expression of your love for me and I am in awe that you would create these things and express these just for me.  You are truly great and I love you.  Forgive me for my neglect of you Lord Christ as I have worshipped my job and my rest more than I have loved you.  Give me strength.  Give me trust.  Give me energy.  Help me seek you fervently all time the time.

Something Good Can Come of Something Bad

Today's Reading
2 Samuel Chp 12

Clearly David sinned.  Yet even with this sin God is able to create something good and it is always mysterious how he uses us and what we do for his glory.  After God as Nathan said struck down and killed the child born to David and Bathsheba, God shows mercy and does not kill David.  David then proceeds to have another son - Solomon:

²⁴ Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The LORD loved him; ²⁵ and because the LORD loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah (v24-25)

My Prayer: Lord, your designs and your plan are great.  I know I sin so please forgive me and thank you for mercy Lord.  Purify me and transform me and help me be more like you.  I love you Lord Christ.

Faith In God vs Man

Today's Reading
2 Samuel Chps 10-11

I've been reading about how David was anointed by God and how God was with David everywhere he went.  When I read about people such as David it is tempting to worship the person vs see in the person what God has done and what God is doing.

We clearly cannot have faith in man in the same way that we have faith in God.  In this chapter (11) David commits adultery and murder:

But the thing David had done displeased the LORD (v26).

My Prayer: Lord, it is ONLY You who is perfect, pure and holy.  I on the other hand am unclean.  I sin daily at least in my heart if not with my body and sometimes overtly.  Thank you for your example, your love and of course for your death on the cross and resurrection as it is through these things I can be forgiven and live in eternity with you.  Help me Lord Father, purify me and help me have complete faith, trust and love with all of my heart in You.

Humility Defined As Trusting God Even When You Don't Want To

Today's Reading
2 Samuel Chps 8-9

I know that humility is important.  In this story with David, I see humility because David reaches out to a lame son of Jonathan and shows kindness and compassion...is is I suppose humility through lack of arrogance.  David could have had anything.  In fact, the Lord was giving David military victory everywhere he went:

The LORD gave David victory wherever he went. 2 Samuel 8:6

...

The LORD gave David victory wherever he went. 2 Samuel 8:14

Yet, with all of the power that David had, David worked to do what was just, good, and right:

David reigned over all Israel, doing what was just and right for all his people. 2 Samuel 8:15

More specifically, the humility I see with David is that David focuses on God's glory and not his own.  David's humility results in him "taking in" the lame son of Jonathan - Mephibosheth.  David reaches out to Mephibosheth and ensures that he has provision and care for the rest of his life - despite that he is lame in both feet and he is an offspring of Saul's family - and Saul sought David's death.

 “Don’t be afraid,” David said to him, “for I will surely show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my table.” 2 Samuel 9:7

We must avoid temptation to circumvent God's will and focus on our own glory vs God's glory.  

Right now, I can see that I am trying to circumvent God's will in the rearing of my own son Zach.  I am trying to force Zach into a love of Christ.  This is not my job!  I am to shepherd his heart - and pray that God grows in Zach's heart.  I must trust God and not force my will onto Zach.  This is difficult because I want Zach to love the Lord.

My Prayer:  Lord...Father...you have come into my heart and my life and transformed me and saved me from eternal death and a life of sin here on earth.  You ARE GREAT!  Forgive me for my neglect and laziness regarding my relationship, study, prayer, and quiet time.  I thank you that you can and will forgive me.  And I thank you for my blessings - primarily my family, Lisa, Zach and Dustin.  But there is so much more!  Thank you Lord Father!  I pray that I can humble myself by trusting in you and seeking out your guidance and direction with Zach.  Reveal to me how I can shepherd his heart.

God Cannot Be "Boxed In"

Today's Reading
2 Samuel Chp 7


I know I should not do this but I "box" Jesus in; he is part of this part of my life and not part of other parts of my life.  This is so not how God wants it to be!  In fact, God tells David through Nathan that David should not be concerned about living in house of Cedar when God lives in only a tent (as David puts it).

‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? ⁶ I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. ⁷ Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’(verses 5-7)

I also see in this passage a foreshadowing of Jesus being in the line of David:

“‘The LORD declares to you that the LORD himself will establish a house for you: ¹²When your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish his kingdom. ¹³ He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. ¹⁴ I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men, with floggings inflicted by human hands. ¹⁵ But my love will never be taken away from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. ¹⁶ Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever.’”

My Prayer: Lord, you are too big to be boxed in!  In my own life I have seen how your blessings have caused my cup to "runneth over"!  Thank you for how you have transformed my life and my heart to be more like you.  Forgive me when I neglect you, don't seek you out or don't listen to you.  Help me come to you always, love you more, trust you more, obey, and follow.  Purify me Lord and help me depend on you and not myself, other people, or earthly things.

Do Not Hide Your Worship

Today's Reading
2 Samuel Chp 6

I often say to myself that I am not gifted in evangelism and perhaps this is true or not true and perhaps God is either calling me or not calling me to grow in this area....yet what I say to myself about evangelism makes me think about my worship and what I clear God says about worship as it applies to me being a parent.

Here in 2 Samuel, one of David's wifes Michal, is apparently embarassed for the public nature of David's worship of the Lord:

 ²⁰ When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, “How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, going around half-naked in full view of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!”

  

²¹ David said to Michal, “It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. ²² I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.”

²³ And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death. (2 Samuel 6:20-23)

 Similarly, Moses gives the Israelites instructions that worship of the Lord is to be with all of our heart:

⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.(Deuteronomy 6:5-9)

My Prayer: Lord, your works in my life alone are great let alone those I have witnessed in the lives of others.  Thank you for helping me with patience as well as other areas in my life - you are great and it is only through You that this transformation occurs.  Help me proclaim and pronounce your love and greatness in a more public manner so that all the world may know and come to know you and accept you.  Help me overcome any shame of my love for you.  If I do have any shame, please forgive me of this and help with this.

Lead Through Humility

Today's Reading
2 Samuel Chp 3

It is counter-intuitive in our contemporary world but we must lead not via bravado but instead by showing a servant's heart; it is through humility that we can become more Christ-like as we shed ourselves and instead invite Christ into our heart.  Although it is an old testament example, David here exemplifies this humility as one of his men Joab kills a former commander of Saul's army.  David admonishes Joab and laments - demonstrating his love of the Lord and his commands.

 ²⁸ Later, when David heard about this, he said, “I and my kingdom are forever innocent before the LORD concerning the blood of Abner son of Ner.

...

³¹ Then David said to Joab and all the people with him, “Tear your clothes and put on sackcloth and walk in mourning in front of Abner.” King David himself walked behind the bier. ³² They buried Abner in Hebron, and the king wept aloud at Abner’s tomb. All the people wept also.

  

³³ The king sang this lament for Abner:

   “Should Abner have died as the lawless die?
 

 ³⁴ Your hands were not bound,
   your feet were not fettered.
You fell as one falls before the wicked.”

   And all the people wept over him again. 

Paul speaks of humility in Colossians 3:12

¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 

My Prayer: Lord, you have blessed me with gifts to lead and I am in awe of how you have used me for your glory - it is entirely your doing as you are great and your plan and your works are great!  Thank you Lord for your blessings and your hand!  Forgive me for my own arrogance and need for control.  Help me love and trust you more, and obey you fully.  Purify me.  Help me submit to you humbly so that you can be in control and so that your hands can guide mine with your plan and your works.