My Times are in Your hand

Psalm 31 reads like a person who has messed up, badly. He knows this mess up has changed his life, his scope of influence, and it has given his enemies satisfaction. Sadly this mess up has also caused him to become a reproach to his neighbors. Living in humiliation can be devastating. "For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away." It is bad! It feels deeply discouraging.

There are two situations where this feeling stems. First, you are an innocent victim of someone's sin. The second, it is a result of your own sin. The first is another blog altogether. Being a victim is horrible, but when you cause your own pain there are lessons the Psalmist teaches us. Lessons as to how we can move forward in God's good grace.

The first lesson, we must ALWAYS repent after we recognize our sin. Without that all other points are mute. Next, David recognized God’s mercy and forgiveness. Lastly, he began to emulate God, wanting what God wanted, hating what God hated.

After all that, he also understood forgiveness doesn’t eliminate consequences every time. Sometimes God allows the results of our sin to have lifelong and lasting consequences. Other times we pay the debt and walk on through life with only the mental recollection of sin. Other times there is no residual reminder.

No matter which we face as a result of our sin, then our repentance and the possible consequence, we must move on in life so touched by the affect of the sin. We need to remember the folks hurt by our choices. We need to be sensitive to how sin grieved the heart of God, his Spirit. When we do this life begins to look different.

When life looks different we no longer live and see our choices as inconsequential. We live knowing choices have consequences. We also become more aware that our times are in his hand. This isn’t about life or death alone. We begin to recognize we’d rather live to honor and please him because we are his and he is ours. We say like the Psalmist, “Oh, how great is Your goodness, which you have laid up for those who fear you, which you have prepared for those who trust in you in the presence of the sons of men!”

The consequences of our sin should bring us to such lowliness of spirit especially when the effect is broad. When we repent and can move on we should become sensitive and recognize the goodness of God so much. It should lead us to no longer want to live our own way. It should teach us to worship with the deepest sincerity. We come to understand “my times are in your hand,” Lord let me not sin against you. Help me ever live to obey and love you. This is what experiencing God's forgiveness should teach us.