Jun 18: Psalm 51:1-9
Key Verse: Psalm 51:9
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Devotion:
One of the things we learn from the people who lived before Christ is how they regarded sin in it’s various forms. This passage, for me, gives me direction and a way of looking forward no matter what has happened or is happening in my life. When we do something wrong, it normally affects the people around us as well as us and they get drawn into our issues – just as we get drawn into their issues in their lives.
God wanted mankind to see sin has far reaching implications in everybody’s lives and not just the life of the person doing wrong. God also wanted us to see the most important thing is the end goal of not sinning against Him. No matter how good we are to others and how well we get on with others, if we have anything against God in our lives, it is going to continue affecting us and the people around us.
Churches are not safe havens where everyone gets on and nobody argues; people are not like that and we always seem to mess up in front of others. God wants us to live in peace with others, but even when we are at peace with everyone around us, we also need to make sure we are at peace with God.
Christ came to level the playing field by making it possible to live in peace with God through His grace and mercy. It is because Christ paid for our sin debt that we are able to have our sins forgiven – something the people in the Old Testament had not yet been introduced to yet. They continued to try and appease God with sacrifices and offerings ever time they did something wrong… it was hard work!
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard to live with others?
Do you know Christ makes it possible for God to live with us?