As I was reading my Bible, I was led to a verse, Psalm 73:26, which I had found very encouraging a few months ago. Loving Psalms, I began reading the whole chapter and I was a little amazed. You see, when I wrote this section in the Marijuana blog:
“It hurts to see the body of Christ getting sick and hiding them selves in the same manner as dying animals do. As the body of Christ we are to be there for one another and be able to confide and seek accountability with one another. The body of Christ is to help one another in needs and weaknesses. We are not to hide our faults, but be open with them so that finally nothing is hidden for Satan to keep a foothold on in our lives (1 Peter 5:8-9; Ephesians 4:27).”
I did not really like the part talking about Christians hiding their sins like dying animals. It was a hard reality to put in ink and the visual bothered me. When I went back make it ‘cleaner,’ it felt wrong, and so I left it alone. What I found altering was in reading all of Psalm 73, verses 21-24 and of course again verse 26 stuck out to me:
21 Thus my heart was grieved,
And I was vexed in my mind.
22 I was so foolish and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
24 You will guide me with Your counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory…
26 My flesh and my heart fail;
But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
David was a man after God’s own heart, and after his sin with Bathsheba was shown to him, he wrote Psalm 51. Here David repented, begged God not to leave him, and asked God to change his heart once again into His. His feelings of inadequacy did not stop there and Satan was constantly attacking David’s view of himself and how God must think of him, even though the prophet Nathan had told David God has forgiven his sins. David still had these feelings of frustration and sadness with his ignorance and foolishness. David felt like a beast before God, and that he had become something too detestable for God to even look upon.
This is what many of us feel like once we see our sins and how wretched we truly are. We hate them and despise them and feel like a beast with no future, hence where “dying animal” picture came from in my blog post, but that is not who we are. God has promised to continuously be with us, to hold us up with his victorious right hand, to continue to guide us, and still sees us as a glorious adornment for Him to receive. I might fail, but my God will never fail or leave me. God does not desire sacrifice but a pure and contrite spirit is pleasing and acceptable to Him (Psalm 51:17; Psalm 40:6). Once we repent and turn from our sin, God can then be “the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
So quit believing the lies Satan is trying to trap you with, but step into freedom and life in God. He died so you would not have to live in bondage anymore as a chained animal, but as a child of the living God. God said to Cain in Genesis 4:7, “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Cain gave in and committed the first murder in the Bible; by us giving into our sin, we are leading to our own death of who we are as God’s. Rule over sin by being weak in God and giving Him the glory in all things.
