Scripture
All the days ordained for me were written in Your book before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:16
Reflection
David realized the power, presence, and purpose-driven nature of God. He realized that God knew him fully even before he was conceived and formed in the womb. He realized that God spoke of him long before David came to be. David realized that God had a plan and purpose for him that were bigger and bolder than anything he could ever imagine. With this understanding comes responsibility to do his part, be obedient and discerning, and don’t screw things up on his end—so that God doesn’t have to waste time fixing David’s mess.
If you read and study your Bible, then you know that David reached a point in his life where his title, rank, and fame got to his head. He went from the humble young man slaying Goliath, to an adulterer and murderer. He made a lot of messy situations, and many of us would question why God would choose him, forgive him, and redeem him. That’s our biggest problem, we forget our role and we swerve out of our lane. We’ve grown entitled to think that we can judge and determine who’s righteous and worthy of saving.
Only God can see our hearts and all that’s within them. Even David’s lust of the flesh could be reconciled by God. For God knew that David’s heart wasn’t evil. Yes, he had given into temptation but he hadn’t converted to Team Satan. God dealt justly with folks that were on the other team. God had a plan and it required David to be part of that plan, and through God’s grace, mercy, patience, and correction, we see the evolution of David.
Just like we saw God do the same thing with Adam (the first sinner), Cain (killed his brother and then lied to God about it), Lamech (killed a man for hurting him and a boy for bruising him), and Abraham (the scandal with Hagar, and then the “she’s my sister” scandal that happened twice with Sarai/Sarah). Let’s not forget Isaac did the exact same thing his father Abraham did. Then we saw how Jacob lied and tricked his brother Esau and his father Isaac, to get Esau’s birthright and blessings.
These are just some of the examples of men in the Bible who God demonstrated patience, grace, mercy, and loving correction. I can rattle off examples of women too, like Eve, Sarai/Sarah, Hagar, Rebekah, Rachel, Leah, and more. All of these women let jealousy, envy, pride, and fear cause chaos in their lives. They all chose to fall into Satan’s trap one way or another. But God loved, forgave, and blessed them.
God wasn’t making up the plans as He went along. When He started anew with Noah’s family on the ark, God already had a vision for a people, for the world, for His creations. He knew the struggles, traps, and dumb decisions that would be made. He was determined to keep His covenants, His promises to individuals and to nations. He is determined to keep His promises made to you, if you will let Him.
When you dig into the Bible and study the history, cultures, customs, traditions, and languages, you get a better sense of what was going on and why they were being tested by God and tempted by Satan. You can see where, how, and why God is reconciling the world influenced by Satan to be realigned with God’s Kingdom. God has a vision of Heaven and Earth merged together as one, but humans keep getting in the way of that vision materializing in present-day.
When you dig deep into the Bible you can see the tie-ins and parallels to today. You can also see yourself in some of the stories. Can you see those moments in your life of fear, pride, envy, jealousy, greed, lust, refusing to forgive, deception, grief, depression, and lies? We read of God’s forgiveness of people that many of us wouldn’t forgive, which should help us to see how differently we see things in comparison to God. We’re focused on one thing while He’s focused on something else. We’re focused on the minor while He’s focused on the major. We can only see in front of us while He can see everything and everyone—past, present, and future.
Also, what many of us fail to see is that just as God forgave David, Jacob, Isaac, and others—God will and has forgiven YOU and me! It’s up to you to forgive yourself. It’s up to you to forgive others who have wronged you. We create the twisted madness that enslaves us in a constant state of lack, anger, depression, and chaos. We blame Satan. But Satan didn’t make us choose that as our reality. We did that all by ourselves. We choose to hold grudges, not forgive, be prideful, cheat, steal, deceive, abuse, and keep the cycle going strong. We choose to enslave and oppress people through systemic racism, sexism, classism, and other isms. We choose to hate and create division through that hate.
We choose to be the modern Sadducees and Pharisees. We choose to keep the curse of Adam and Eve present in our lives each and every day. As long as we sin the curse remains. We choose lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. We can choose to do the opposite. We can choose to accept responsibility for our wrongdoing and sins, ask for forgiveness (and forgive ourselves), repent, atone, and realign fully with God.
Just like David and the examples of people before and after him.
Today is a blessing, a gift from God, known by Him long before our minds can fathom. How will YOU choose to spend the moments of this day?
Prayer
Father God, today I humbly come to You giving You thanks for all Your goodness and faithfulness in my life. I trust that Your plans for me are good, and I choose to turn the page of the past by choosing Your way which means to be present in the day-to-day, and hopeful for the future.
I embrace the role You have chosen for me and I accept the responsibility that comes with my position. I want to break free from sin, do my part to end this generational curse, and live my best life as designed by You. I praise You for what You did, what You have done, and what You will do. In Jesus’ Name I pray to You. Amen.
Love you all!
Natasha
Copyright 2011-2021. Natasha L. Foreman. Some Rights Reserved. All Prayers and Reflections are Copyright Protected by Natasha L. Foreman. BreakingBreadForNatasha.com
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