BROKEN TO REIGN
Everyone wants to be on top--to experience victory, from birth to death.
No one likes trouble, pain or hardship. No one likes punishment or
chastisement. But, all of us will experience all of them at some point in our lives, as hard as we try to avoid them.
HAVE MERCY upon me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to the multitude of Your tender mercy and loving-kindness blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin!
For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and faultless in Your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful].
Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness and be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted and return to You.
[Psalm 51:1-13, AMP]
Life carries with it some trouble. Man carries with him some failure of character--and sin. We all fail to live up to God's plan for us. It is unavoidable--even the very best of us will sin. David, the famous Jewish king of the Old Testament, was a "man after God's own heart"--yet, he sinned miserably. David was an adulterer, and a murderer. He lusted after and coveted the wife of Uriah the Hittite so much until he took her to himself. When he impregnated her and couldn't trick the honorable Uriah into assuming that he (Uriah) had impregnated Bathsheba, David had him killed. The Bible doesn't call Uriah a man after God's own heart, but David. Seems a bit strange. Bathsheba was all that Uriah had, and David could have anything--and any woman that he desired, yet he took the one woman that belonged to Uriah. Uriah was off to war at that time. When he returns, nothing that David tried could get Uriah to go home to enjoy any pleasantries with Bathsheba--not while his comrades continued in the struggle. David knew that there was no way to fool Uriah into thinking he had impregnated Bathsheba during this period, because Uriah had not had any contact with his wife. David then devised his wicked plan, putting Uriah at the front of the battle--in the heat of it, to ensure that he would not return home alive. Bathsheba then became David's wife. David got exactly what he desired--but often what we desire is not what is best for us spiritually-speaking, and we suffer greatly, as a result. And David did, too.
David lost out on much because of this sin (there are still consequences for sin)--but God forgave him and fully restored and cleansed him, because of his heart of repentance. That is what impressed God. God wasn't impressed with David's kingship, his outward appearance, his wealth, his musical ability or his might in battle. God was impressed only with the heart of David that was humble enough to recognize his extreme sinfulness and to respond in acts of repentance. David saw himself. The thing that got God's attention was David's willingness to accept responsibility--total responsibility, without blaming anyone else. Saul, before him, had been rejected by God for doing just the opposite of David when caught in transgression and disobedience. When found to have spared what God commanded Saul to totally annihilate, Saul began to point fingers at those he (Saul) commanded, as if they could force him to do anything. Saul was king, and he chose to disobey God--there was no one to blame; he could have been the first man after God's own heart had he been convicted to the point of repentance and sorrow for sin, rather than blaming. Perhaps, things could have been different for all of mankind had the first Adam had a heart like David's--I don't know, it's just a thought; but it doesn't matter, because he passed blame, too.
It takes broken contrite hearts, where sin is present to win God's mercy and grace. He provided it, but the only way to access the provision is through a heart of repentance. Without a repentant heart, you won't even desire what God offers. When He draws, that is when we begin to recognize our need for Him, and to see the depths of our sin. What God requires, He provides. He gives us hearts of repentance, so that we can desire all that He has to offer us--the fulness of Himself.
Before we can have the mountain though, we must get a glimpse of our need. We see the iniquity, the sin, the depravity--that's what drives us into His bosom to be purified and made righteous by His authoritative name and His holy power. He then begins the process of transforming our hearts. There will be times that we fall and we must be broken again, in order for us to reign.
That's a big issue with us in the church, today. We sin, but we continue to "reign" without being broken in repentance. We don't want to miss a beat. We can't allow men to see our failure so we continue to wear a facade of holiness, but inwardly we are filled with dead men's bones--being no more than white-washed tombs. There is no reign--in truth and wholeness, without brokenness--sin brings separation from God. Until our relationship with God is restored and we are cleansed--accepting responsibility and seeking forgiveness, we remain shackled by our transgressions.
Be willing to be broken, so that you may reign!
HAVE MERCY upon me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to the multitude of Your tender mercy and loving-kindness blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin!
For I am conscious of my transgressions and I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned and done that which is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified in Your sentence and faultless in Your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful].
Behold, You desire truth in the inner being; make me therefore to know wisdom in my inmost heart.
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean [ceremonially]; wash me, and I shall [in reality] be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness and be satisfied; let the bones which You have broken rejoice.
Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my guilt and iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me.
Cast me not away from Your presence and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then will I teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted and return to You.
[Psalm 51:1-13, AMP]
Life carries with it some trouble. Man carries with him some failure of character--and sin. We all fail to live up to God's plan for us. It is unavoidable--even the very best of us will sin. David, the famous Jewish king of the Old Testament, was a "man after God's own heart"--yet, he sinned miserably. David was an adulterer, and a murderer. He lusted after and coveted the wife of Uriah the Hittite so much until he took her to himself. When he impregnated her and couldn't trick the honorable Uriah into assuming that he (Uriah) had impregnated Bathsheba, David had him killed. The Bible doesn't call Uriah a man after God's own heart, but David. Seems a bit strange. Bathsheba was all that Uriah had, and David could have anything--and any woman that he desired, yet he took the one woman that belonged to Uriah. Uriah was off to war at that time. When he returns, nothing that David tried could get Uriah to go home to enjoy any pleasantries with Bathsheba--not while his comrades continued in the struggle. David knew that there was no way to fool Uriah into thinking he had impregnated Bathsheba during this period, because Uriah had not had any contact with his wife. David then devised his wicked plan, putting Uriah at the front of the battle--in the heat of it, to ensure that he would not return home alive. Bathsheba then became David's wife. David got exactly what he desired--but often what we desire is not what is best for us spiritually-speaking, and we suffer greatly, as a result. And David did, too.
David lost out on much because of this sin (there are still consequences for sin)--but God forgave him and fully restored and cleansed him, because of his heart of repentance. That is what impressed God. God wasn't impressed with David's kingship, his outward appearance, his wealth, his musical ability or his might in battle. God was impressed only with the heart of David that was humble enough to recognize his extreme sinfulness and to respond in acts of repentance. David saw himself. The thing that got God's attention was David's willingness to accept responsibility--total responsibility, without blaming anyone else. Saul, before him, had been rejected by God for doing just the opposite of David when caught in transgression and disobedience. When found to have spared what God commanded Saul to totally annihilate, Saul began to point fingers at those he (Saul) commanded, as if they could force him to do anything. Saul was king, and he chose to disobey God--there was no one to blame; he could have been the first man after God's own heart had he been convicted to the point of repentance and sorrow for sin, rather than blaming. Perhaps, things could have been different for all of mankind had the first Adam had a heart like David's--I don't know, it's just a thought; but it doesn't matter, because he passed blame, too.
It takes broken contrite hearts, where sin is present to win God's mercy and grace. He provided it, but the only way to access the provision is through a heart of repentance. Without a repentant heart, you won't even desire what God offers. When He draws, that is when we begin to recognize our need for Him, and to see the depths of our sin. What God requires, He provides. He gives us hearts of repentance, so that we can desire all that He has to offer us--the fulness of Himself.
Before we can have the mountain though, we must get a glimpse of our need. We see the iniquity, the sin, the depravity--that's what drives us into His bosom to be purified and made righteous by His authoritative name and His holy power. He then begins the process of transforming our hearts. There will be times that we fall and we must be broken again, in order for us to reign.
That's a big issue with us in the church, today. We sin, but we continue to "reign" without being broken in repentance. We don't want to miss a beat. We can't allow men to see our failure so we continue to wear a facade of holiness, but inwardly we are filled with dead men's bones--being no more than white-washed tombs. There is no reign--in truth and wholeness, without brokenness--sin brings separation from God. Until our relationship with God is restored and we are cleansed--accepting responsibility and seeking forgiveness, we remain shackled by our transgressions.
Be willing to be broken, so that you may reign!
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