By: Gina Caswell Kelly
We have been studying about David in Sunday school lately. David is one of my favorite characters in the Bible. There is so much about him to appreciate. He was just a young shepherd boy, yet God chose him to be the new king of Israel. Only he was anointed when he was about 10 or 12, and didn’t become king for 20 or so more years.
Not only that, but he spent many of those years running from King Saul. Saul had once loved him, then turned on David and caused David to have run for his life. Then, when David finally became king, he saw another woman bathing on her rooftop and had her brought to him.
Just your average run-of-the-mill person, having to learn about patience, having learned about people turning on you and learning to survive that which should have killed him, then lusting after what he should not have even been looking at. All in all, he lived a pretty normal life. And that is why he is one of my favorites.
God called David a man after His own heart. God loved David, even when he sinned. God was able to use this very normal and very flawed individual to save a nation and it was from the line of David that Jesus came. I love the stories of David because they give me hope for my own life! I too am very flawed. I too have sinned great sins. I too have had to learn patience and trust. I too have been betrayed by people close to me. I am just like David.
God’s grace is shown over and over in the life of David. His great protection over David is evident from David’s early years, to his battle with Goliath, to his running from Saul, to his sin with Bathsheba. God’s grace is sufficient. That same grace that God showed David is being shown to each of us day after day. His mercies are abundant. His love is unimaginable. His forgiveness knows no depth. Absolutely amazing is the greatness of our God! It is just so hard to imagine that the same God who made the stars and the planets, and planted the grass and the trees, and filled the ocean is available to each one of us round the clock every single day of our lives!
When David was confronted with his sin with Bathsheba, he immediately asked for forgiveness. His heart was broken with his attempt at deception and the results of that. He wrote Psalm 51 as his song of a broken and contrite heart. He asked God in this Psalm to “Create in me a clean heart. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” He got it right.
He knew his heart needed cleansing. He knew he missed the joy that was his when his walk with God was of utmost importance to him. So how about you and I? Are we asking God for that clean heart each day? Are we living in the joy of God’s salvation? Oh my goodness, we ought to be! What a difference it would make in our lives if we would pray David’s pray each day!
“Create in me, Father, a clean heart. Restore to me the joy I feel in knowing You are holding me and and my salvation is real and sure! Love me, Father and guide my steps.”
This prayer will make a difference!
