Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Attitude”
Our Bible verse for today: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “It starts with you.”
I have always loved Psalm 51. This is a Psalm of David and it’s about the time that the prophet Nathan confronted the king regarding the sin he had committed with Bathsheba. If you remember the story, David the King was at home in his palace in Jerusalem when he should have been out in the battlefield with his army. One night from his roof he saw a beautiful woman (Bathsheba) taking a bath on the roof of a nearby home. What in the world she was doing naked on the roof of her home I don’t know, but the king saw her, lusted after her, had a servant go and get her, and he slept with her.
Bathsheba was married to one of David’s soldiers, Uriah, but she became pregnant by David. Long story short, David had Uriah murdered and he married Bathsheba. Then Nathan the prophet, under instructions from the Holy Spirit of God, confronted David with the sin he had committed. In Psalm 51 we read of David’s response to that confrontation. He acknowledged his sin, repented, and begged the Lord’s forgiveness.
Although this Psalm is about a very bad and very specific sin committed by one particular man, the lessons of the Psalm apply to all of us. Forget that these are David’s words of repentance and make them your own. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
All too often we’re convinced that it’s the other person who needs to get some religion; it’s the other person who needs to confess and repent. No, it’s probably you. Or at least, let’s start with you. How about if you get right with the Lord first, then we can think about whether or not others need to as well.
This is important. Usually if we will begin by asking God to deal with our own heart first we’ll quickly discover that 90% of the problem gets fixed right there. Maybe 100%!
Verse 12 goes on, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” Repentance is tremendously refreshing and liberating. It lifts a great burden off of us and allows us to once again truly experience the joy of our relationship with the Lord and with others.
Every Sunday at Oak Hill Baptist Church we end our service with an open altar call. This is a time for people to make a variety of different kinds of commitments but it’s also a time for individuals to simply come and kneel at the altar and do some business with the Lord. I hope your church offers that opportunity as well. If not, please feel free to come and kneel at ours. Doing so is good for the soul. It’s good for the attitude.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 