Is Your Sin Keeping You from God’s Heart?

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Have you ever felt like you have made too many mistakes to be a man or woman after God’s own heart? Ever felt like you have struggled with sin way too much to please God? Ever felt like your life will never have any true significance as far as God is concerned because you have fallen too many times? Those who know King David’s story in the Bible may know he was considered “a man after [God’s]…own heart,” and may also be familiar with how he had an affair with a woman and then had her husband killed to cover up his sin. Dig a little deeper into King David’s story, and you will find in 1 Chronicles 21, for example, that this was not the only time King David sinned. So how could King David be called a man after God’s own heart given he sinned – and not just once, at that?

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Dig even deeper into the Bible, and see his love for God, his passion for God, and how he throws everything – even his words, and his dance – into his passion for God. But still, King David sinned, didn’t he? Yes, he did. But when David sinned, he did something that is key to every man and woman who are truly after God’s own heart. He felt genuine sorrow and remorse over his sin, he recognized and acknowledged that his sin was against God, his heart broke over his sin, he sought the Lord in sincere repentance and desired God’s forgiveness, and he did what the Lord wanted to show his repentance. Then, as a true man after God’s own heart, instead of walking away from God and staying in his sin, he ran after the Lord and lived his life as best he could according to the ways of the Lord.

A man or woman after God’s own heart is not a person without sin. For we all fall short of God in our everyday lives. Only through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins are we forgiven by God. A man or woman after God’s own heart, I believe, is a person who loves and serves the Lord with all his or her heart – and lives a life of ongoing repentance whereby he or she is ever learning to turn away from one’s sins with genuine sorrow and to turn unto and to follow the Lord! 

Act 13:22  And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. 
Act 13:23  Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus: 

2Sa 6:13  And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings. 

2Sa 6:14  And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.

 1Sa 16:7  But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart. 

Psa 51:1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 
Psa 51:2  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 
Psa 51:3  For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. 
Psa 51:4  Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. 
Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. 
Psa 51:6  Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. 
Psa 51:7  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 
Psa 51:8  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 
Psa 51:9  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. 
Psa 51:10  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 
Psa 51:11  Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. 
Psa 51:12  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. 
Psa 51:13  Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. 
Psa 51:14  Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. 
Psa 51:15  O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise. 
Psa 51:16  For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. 
Psa 51:17  The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. 
Psa 51:18  Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem. 
Psa 51:19  Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. 

Please visit Walk by Faith Ministry at https://www.walkbyfaithministry.com.

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