King David’s prayer was that God would be God in his life. When he awoke to his un-Godlikeness, it was an awakening that drove him into the very heart of God, and caused him to hunger for more and more of God in his life. He prayed, “Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me” (vs. 11). He meant it. He came clean before God and wanted to stay clean before God. He had tasted forgiveness, and he would never turn back.
As we journey to Good Friday and the Resurrection, may we, on the one hand, never forget from whence we come, and on the other hand, never forget the glorious taste of forgiveness. For David it meant praying, “Create in me a clean heart…and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (vs. 10). As A. W. Tozer prayed, “O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.”
Isn’t this the way of grace? It satisfies and yet makes one hungry for more of God. It satisfies so fully that a person wants to go as far with God as one can go. Here is another song from my childhood.
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
Julia Harriette Johnston (1910)
With a grace and mercy that is difficult to comprehend, God reached out to me one day and flat-out changed my life. I didn’t deserve it, I didn’t earn it, and it caught me totally off guard. He took my brokenness, sin, shame, fears, and nailed them to the cross. That’s why I sing even at this late date in my life,
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds my sin and my guilt!
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.
David didn’t understand these things in his time, but in HIS time, God has made them known. Please, please, take the grace, and let God be God in you.
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