Saturday, July 10, 2010
Psalm 6:1-2 O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint; O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.
CRYING FOR MERCY
The Apostle Paul expressed the frustration of all Christians when he wrote in Romans 7:18-19, "For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do -- this I keep on doing." We struggle against sin every day and sometimes it seems like we're losing.
Perhaps we look back on something we've done and it literally makes us feel ill. David felt this way when he said, "My bones are in agony." We all have those times when we wish we could "do over" some foolish moment in our lives; when we wish we had made a better decision; when we are deeply saddened by the trouble some sin of ours has caused. Sometimes thinking on our sins makes us lie awake at night. We feel sick to our stomachs. We get weak and tired worrying about our failures. The struggle with sin can certainly end up affecting us physically as well as mentally.
What is the answer? The answer is to take your sins to the LORD. Appeal to the God of heaven for mercy. He can tell you "all is well." He can tell you that His wrath has been turned away from you. He will be with you so that the trouble your sin has caused does not overwhelm you. He can assure you daily that He does not hold anything against you -- because He held it against your substitute, Jesus Christ.
