If you ever want to grasp the breadth and depth of God’s love for you in one sitting, just read Psalm 103. David can’t contain his joy or gladness of spirit. “With all my heart I praise the LORD, and with all that I am I praise his holy name!” he begins.
Without pausing for breath David continues to describe who God is and what he does.
Read More joy, failure, confession, rest
“It’s only snow. You need to apologize to your son!” I was too furious to listen to my wife’s words. My son had just arrived at our house. I was halfway through snow-blowing the driveway. Without thinking, he tried to get his truck up the drive and got stuck. All the maneuvering that came next tore up my lawn. It also packed down the remaining snow, making it impossible to clear with the snow-blower.
Read More confession, sin, repentanceDavid was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), but he was a man who also followed after the “lusts of his flesh,” or as we would say, bodily appetites and sexual desire. Psalm 51 is David’s confession after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and was confronted by Nathan the prophet (see 2 Samuel 11:1- 12:25).
Read More prayer, forgiveness, adultery, sex, confession
All through their history the Israelites had a yo-yo relationship with God. At times they worshipped and served God, at other times they turned away from him and worshipped idols. Samuel told them if they got rid of the idols and turned back to God, wholeheartedly, God would rescue them from their enemy, the Philistines. So the Israelites turned back to God.
When the Philistines marched towards them, the Israelites were scared, but they didn’t run.
Read More sin, confession, God’s help
Could it be that the themes of this prayer were the substance of what Daniel was praying about in chapter 6? If so, then he was doing far more than keeping his quiet time. Stimulated by God’s promises, he was interceding for God’s people. He knew that the only ground of his appeal was God’s mercy; but then that is the only basis on which any of us can appeal.
Read More confession, prayer, faith
If you have ever had a deep conflict with another person, you know the deep emotional pain that comes with it. There are seasons of anger that are often accompanied by deep grief over a broken relationship. On the other side of this conflict is the joy that comes when we are reconciled with another person – when everything is in the open and love and grace freely flow.
Read More joy, forgiveness, conflict, reconciliation, confession, emotional painThe Story of God seems to have faltered. The promise of the return of God’s people after the exile of judgment and all the glory to follow which predicted that Jerusalem would become the centre of world salvation seems to have been shipwrecked on the shore of reality (Jeremiah 31:16-40). A few of the exiles have returned, and the temple has been rebuilt.
Read More despair, kingdom, confession, reality, promises of God, petitionIn the previous chapter, on the first day of that same month the people had celebrated because they understood the Word of God, which strengthened them to obey that Word. Now as the month drew to a close, the time had come for a further action in response to understanding God’s Word: confessing their sins.
Read More worship, praise, forgiveness, confession, CreatorAs the congregational prayer continues, the people turn from declaring who God is and what he has done (vv 5-15), to acknowledging that their ancestors had stubbornly disobeyed God. Two contrasting behaviors are highlighted: the people’s disobedience, and God’s mercy and loving patience.
Read More responsibility, confession, disobedience, God’s faithfulness, God’s love