March 19th, 2019
Devotional
“Self-Examination” - Psalm 51
Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com
Monday: “Wash Me” - Psalm 51: 1-2
Psalm 51 is believed to have been written shortly after David had taken another man’s wife as his own. The story goes that David, King of Israel, stayed behind for some unknown reason when his men, his troops, were off preparing for battle. He caught the site of a married women, Bathsheba, bathing on a roof, and he had he brought to the palace where he lied with her. Then she became pregnant. In order to attempt to cover up his sin, David called for Bathsheba’s husband to come home from battle and tried to convince him to sleep with her - only he refused, for it was improper for him to sleep with his wife when other men were in battle.
Finally, David went Uriah back to the front lines of a battle with a letter for his commanding officer, essentially stating to make sure Uriah gets killed in battle. Which he did. And David took Bathsheba as his wife.
David’s priest Nathan came and spoke to him about what had taken place - telling the story of a small lamb that was taken by a man who had all the lambs in the world. David became enraged until Nathan pointed out that he was the man who stole the lambs - he had taken Bathsheba as his wife after having her husband killed. This Psalm is written after all of that had taken place - and David is guilt-ridden, calling out to God for forgiveness and mercy.
Who is someone is your life that helps point out the blind spots of your sin?
Prayer: God, we thank you this day for the people in our lives like Nathan - people who help us to see what needs to be confessed and open us up to your forgiveness. Cleans us, O Lord, as we confess that which we need forgiveness for this day. Amen.
Tuesday: “My Sin” - Psalm 51: 3-5
Part of this Psalm’s power is while it was certainly written in a particular time in David’s life, we can find ourselves in it as well. When we hear the words of this Psalm does it not remind us of our own fallenness and entanglement in sin?
David’s prayer also becomes our prayer. Blot our our transgressions in your mercy. Wash us throughly of our iniquity. For none of us are free from the hold of sin in our lives. Since the days of Adam and Eve, when they intentionally made the choice to rebel against the ways of God, we have been making the same choices. We have been choosing to not love God and not love our neighbor with our whole hearts.
We need this time, this season of Lent to seek repentance. We need a time of self-reflection and penitence. Because when left to our own devices, we like to pretend that our sin doesn’t exist, but the truth is pretending does not make it go away. It only makes it fester.
What does self-self-reflection and repentance look like in your life?
Prayer: God, help us to see the sin in our lives clearly, Precious Lord, so that we can acknowledge it and confess it before you. Search us with your Holy Spirit and embolden us to be a people of confession, we pray. Amen.
Wednesday: “Clean Heart” - Psalm 51: 10-12
God wants to create in us a clean heart. A heart where we can proclaim that we are yes, sinners, but that we are saved by grace. Have you ever noticed that folks tend to focus too much on one side of this statement or the other? People either become focused on their depravity, forgetting God’s gift to us, or become so caught up in the gift of grace that they forget why we need it in the first place. Today we stand before God saying that we are sinners, in need of God’s grace, and then we accept that beautiful and powerful gift with open hearts - allowing God to clean and transform us from the inside out. God not only saves us from our sin, but gives us new lives!
What does a clean heart mean to you?
Prayer: Almighty God, we cry out to you this day, along with the words of King David, to create a clean heart within us. Renew us, O Lord. Help us to keep our eyes focused on you, the cross, and the grace that was shared this. All in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Thursday: “Deliver Me” - Pslam 51: 13-14
David didn’t feel guilt about what he had done until Nathan called him out and invited him into a time of repentance. He was perfectly happy not examining his actions or how they damaged his relationship with God and his relationship with others. So it is with us. We need these 40 days. We need a time of confession and turning our hearts back to God. We ned a time to cry together that we need God’s mercy.
Even if we want to pretend that we don’t know our transgressions, want to pretend that there aren’t consequences, we know they exist. We need a time to let them come to the surface in order to be cleaned out.
What happens when you ignore sin in your life?
Prayer: Almighty God, we know in our hearts that we cannot ignore our sin, yet we try so hard to anyway. We know that we cannot run from your presence, yet so often we try to hide, like Adam and Eve, from the wrong we have done. Free us to stand before you and confess our sin, so we can fine the assurance of your pardon, O Lord. Amen.
Friday: “SacrificeAcceptable to God” - Psalm 51: 15-19
As we come to God today, what do you need to confess? What do you need to ask God to cleanse from you? What sin needs to come to the surface so God can blot it out? But as we come, we don’t just confess - we repent - asking God to change us. And we don’t just repent but we also seek reconciliation in our relationship with God and with others. We seek to be renewed and made new in the love and mercy and grace of our Lord. Let us bring ourselves during the entire season of Lent, as a sacrifice for our Lord, who gives us victory over the power of sin.
What unconfessed sin do you need to bring before God today?
Prayer: God, we want to present our very selves as a sacrifice that is pleasing in your sight. Free us from the tangle of sin. Send us forth to proclaim what you have done for us. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Saturday: Preparing for the Word
You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic to prepare for worship: “Honesty” - Matthew 5: 43-48 and Matthew 7: 1-6.
No comments:
Post a Comment