(ESV)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0 \u00a0That doesn\u2019t make sense to me, because remember, David wrote this passage of Scripture after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan for taking Bathsheba to bed and murdering her husband, Uriah. So why does David only confess to God? Shouldn\u2019t he confess his evil deeds to others? So, let\u2019s clear something up, David isn\u2019t ignorant of the consequences of his actions, nor is he minimizing what he\u2019s done to Bathsheba, Uriah, the families involved, and the nation of Israel. Rather, he\u2019s admitting that sin (against God) occurred first, which then paved the way for destructive sin (against others).<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0This is an important principle for us to remember, especially as we consider the topic of personal change. In other words, every act of human wickedness committed against another human being starts with the breaking of an intimate relationship with God. When we sin, we forget his presence; every sin seeks for his throne; every sin replaces the Creator with some created idol. David was able to take Bathsheba to bed because, in that moment, he didn\u2019t care about the presence of God. David was able to order the murder of Uriah because, in that moment, he believed he was the ruler of all things. David was able to bring unspeakable pain to other families because, in that moment, his idol of pleasure was more important than the people to whom he was called to protect. But you might say, \u201cI don\u2019t sin like those people I read about in the media, and especially like King David from the Bible.\u201d You must remember that God sees every sin as an unrighteous act toward Him.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0Even sins like: unforgiveness, pride, evil thoughts, ingratitude, covetousness, selfish ambition, greed, deceitfulness, lust, heartlessness, arrogance, anger, faithlessness, senselessness, haughtiness, and spitefulness. Look at this list and tell me with a straight face that you don\u2019t qualify as a sinner.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0Because you and I are always breaking our relationship with God, we\u2019re always creating a mess in the situations, locations, and relationships of everyday life. I don\u2019t want that to be my legacy – I want to change. So, if this is true, and I believe it is, then we must all change; or a better word can be found in the Bible, and that is repent. As a biblical counselor, change and repentance are words that I focus on with almost every one of my counselees. Everyone, yes even you and me, need to change something about themselves. The Apostle Paul nailed it in Romans 10 when he said: \u201cNone is righteous, no, not one.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0If you want to see lasting change in your earthly situations, locations, and relationships, you must start by seeking change in your heavenly relationship.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0Today, confess that you\u2019re not always aware of God’s presence. Today, confess that you don\u2019t joyfully submit to His lordship. Today, confess that you regularly pursue your idols more than your Savior. And after you have confessed, our Savior requires repentance; as He stated in Luke 5:32, \u201cI have not come to call the righteous\u00a0but sinners\u00a0to repentance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0During your confession and repentance, take heart because your sin is the result of a broken relationship, your hope for change is only found in a restored\u00a0relationship.\u00a0That\u2019s why Jesus was crucified. It\u2019s only through the gift of adoption into a restored relationship that we find that we need to experience a life transformation. To experience victory over sin, we need a greater love for Jesus than we have for ourselves, and His divine grace is the only thing that has the power to produce that kind of love in us. It will be a slow and arduous process, but God is patient with us even when we refuse to love Him, His faithfulness extends as far as the east is from the west.<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0Yes, it\u2019s as simple as that. What is wrong with the communities across this whole vast land called earth is sin. There is no excuse, nor any term that can cover you if you are living in sin. The only thing that can cover you is the blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0You, like me, probably have watched or listened to the local or national news and in dismay thought to yourself, \u201cWhat has happened to my community and the world? Has everyone gone crazy?\u00a0 It\u2019s not safe to go out of my house!\u00a0 Why are people so angry and dangerous?”\u00a0 And, like me, you have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135],"tags":[173,171,172],"class_list":["post-4642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-cities","tag-sin","tag-united-states"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4642"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6317,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions\/6317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acallformen.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}