Broken and Contrite

The oldest and youngest sinners in our home--one saved by grace and one daily prayed for!

    For I know my transgressions,
        and my sin is ever before me.
    Against you, you only, have I sinned
        and done what is evil in your sight,
    so that you may be justified in your words
        and blameless in your judgment.

     Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
        and in sin did my mother conceive me.

    Psalm 51:3-4,5

I have had a heavy heart for some time for a loved one who has strayed from the Truth.  Today as I read Psalm 51, God seemed to remind me of our sinful nature, our tendency to roam.  I was also reminded that our sin is committed against none other than the One who allowed me to be born in the first place.  And His discipline is right and good.  This is not a God who looks down on fallen humanity and says, "Gotcha!"  Rather He is a just and blameless God.  We are to blame, not God.

But I am also reminded that there is hope for this straying loved one.  No one should know that better than King David.  He wrote this psalm after Nathan had approached him about his sin with Bathsheba.  He had sunk to the lowest of lows, a miserable sinner.  Yet he was able to say, 

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
        and renew a right spirit within me...
        O Lord, open my lips,
        and my mouth will declare your praise.
    For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
        you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
    The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
        a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Psalm 51:10,15-17

This psalm has given me renewed hope for my loved one--for all of those whom I know and love who have strayed from the Truth or do not know my Savior.  My prayer for them is this, "Lord, may they recognize that it is against you and you only that they have sinned, and may they come to you with a broken and contrite heart, which you have promised that you will not despise."  

In the name of our Lord who forgives,

Amen