A Beautiful Feeling

Repentance is a beautiful feeling: it is the sorrowful, I am sorry, of the soul. Regret, remorse, repentance, what a marvellous trio they make. 

Today I read about king David, stealing away the ewe-lamb, the cade of Uriah. Lust lead David by the nostrils and he indulged his desires by ordering up another man's wife to bed her, while her husband fought for king and country, to glorify God. What follows is tragic, because David attempts to cover sin with more sin, and murder ensues. I would not do the story justice by retelling it here, it is too extraordinary, too painfully exquisite to simplify. Suffice it to say, that good men of great report, and good women, of honour and reputation, sometimes slip and slide into debauchery, and isn't it so, dear reader, that you and I have done the same from time to time?

*Go to 2 Samuel Chapter 12 to get an insiders view of this intricate story of a corrupted, convicted, and then redeemed heart.

Shame is a marvel, a gift from God. It is a signalling of wrong doing, letting us know that we have contrived and committed crime against the Father of lights. In our dimly lit minds, when we give ourselves permission to perseverate on what God disapproves, followed by action that is insulting to him, we sin against our Maker, and our own souls; not to mention the souls of those we have included or impacted by being deviationists, taking ourselves out from under God's protective and generous government, and placing us in mortal and moral peril. 

Lately, I have asked God to help me forgive others that have done me wrong, in mild and massive ways. In so doing, it is near impossible to not hear the echo of my own past reminding me of the wrongs I have committed, suggesting that while I ought to forgive, I too need forgiveness. None are innocent except of course, sweet little newborns that have yet to learn manipulation and lying, and these, generally, are taught by their very own parents! 

And so, dear one, we have a conundrum. We are born to sinful, lying, cheating parents (you can say yours were perfect but alas, I would have to challenge this faulty belief system, since few are they that have not sinned, while ALL come very short of the glory of God!), and if we lean in the direction of wanting to honour and glorify our heavenly Father, we have to course correct continually. 

🔥 What lies do we tell ourselves and others?

🔥 What cheating have we indulged, and in what form?

🔥 What is our secret sin, or public for that matter, that has stained our souls?

🔥 Worse than these, how have we detracted from glorifying God in our sinful self-indulgences?

One of the many things I appreciate about The Bible, is the honesty of those that had been self and other deceiving. When they wanted their own way, and had it by disobeying the God that loved and blessed them, they tell on themselves, dear reader! They confess for goodness sakes. King David wrote the Psalms and in them, he tells of having sinned against the Lord. The kings story of adultery, fornication, conspiring to kill, and ordering a murder, are shared in detail for the mortifying of our own souls, so that when we sin against God, we feel the sting of regret, in the hope that we never do the same again. When we repent, and sin no more, God forgives.

Isn't this the best news ever? God forgives when we repent and sin no more. This takes away the shame, and replaces it with joy unspeakable. The beautiful feeling of drawing near to God, cuddling into him as a cade, a precious lamb without blemish, a pet that he feeds at his own table and snuggles with as one of his favourites. The lost lamb, gone after and rescued from its own silly idiocy...

You are that lamb, when you see and feel the mercy of God Almighty, after weeping bitter tears of regret for forsaking your own soul and dishonouring your Father in heaven through sin. You are that sweet little newly made innocent lamb, that childlike says, I am sorry, please forgive me, and is welcomed into his loving open arms.

Bahhhh, BAHHHHHH, you bleat... and then leap for sheer joy. A wonderful, beautiful feeling indeed. 

The heart of God must beat in our own chests. He tracks the lost, and retrieves them from peril and perishing, and we must do the same: 

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? (Luke 15:4)