April 12 Bible Reading Plan

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

    and renew a right spirit within me.

 Cast me not away from your presence,

    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation,

    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

-King David

He was down for the count.

The great King David, the slayer of giants, the man after God's own heart, had sinned. The leader of Israel broke two of the Ten Commandments.

"You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:13-14, ESV)

His lustful eyes caused him to sin. When Bathsheba became pregnant, he killed her husband to cover it up.

How did David respond when Nathan the prophet showed up and said, "God knows, and He isn't pleased?"

"Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.  And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.  Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'  

Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun.  

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.'" (2 Samuel 12:7-12, ESV)

King David had sinned and was broken. But what he did next sets the example for all men who have fallen into sin but want to become unbreakable again.

What did he do? He repented.

David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 12:13)

Psalm 51 is the exact words that David prayed after he faced his sin. That's where we see the quote:

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:10-12, ESV)

What do you do when you fall into sin?

Well, the first thing you need to do is admit that you sinned. You need to stop excusing what you did.

Stop playing around with it and acting like it's no big deal.

Then, we must do what David did and ask God to forgive us.

We need to recognize, as Joseph did, that all sin is ultimately against God and sincerely ask Him to forgive us. You might even want to pray Psalm 51.

However, true repentance doesn't end with just saying "sorry." True repentance means that you change.

No, change isn't always easy, but true repentance does whatever it takes to change your behavior—to stop sinning. Repentance means turning around and going in the opposite direction.

Here's the amazing part: when you decide to do everything you can to remove sin from your life, the Holy Spirit inside you partners with you to give you the strength to do everything you can't do on your own.

When your continued determination partners with the power of the Holy Spirit, together you can overcome any sin, restore your relationship with God, and do the work necessary to fix your relationship with others and your reputation.

The truth is that no man is too broken to experience God's forgiveness and healing and start a new life.

But the key is to humble yourself before God in repentance, ask for forgiveness, and partner with the Holy Spirit to stop sinning.

To admit, like David did, I have sinned, but I don't want this to be the end of my story.