March 24
7Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ (2 Samuel 12:7-10)
David, Israel’s most celebrated King, fell from grace over the lust of one woman. The man, who at one point is described as someone “after God’s own heart”(1 Samuel 13:14), commits a terrible sin by setting up Uriah to be murdered so he can marry Uriah’s wife Bathsheba. If David had not allowed this sin to corrupt him, he would have forever been Israel’s most celebrated King. But he let lust taint his life.
Today, this author turns 40 years old. I look at this age as the age of redemption. For, you see, from the ripe old age of 18 until my daughter was born when I turned 30, I was far from God. I could easily argue that I was not a bad person, but I was far from a righteous one as well. For one whole decade, while I was in my 20s, it was all about me. I was enjoying the “time of my life,” or so I thought. Luckily for me, God brought an amazing woman into my life at the age of 24 to calm my wild ambitions. And from our love, God would bless us with our first born, who would lead me running back to God and Jesus. Our daughter gave me all the reason I ever needed to seek eternity because I wanted to spend forever with her. But it all began with God bringing my wife into my life, who is the saving grace that I wish to spend eternity with. My 20s were spent in the darkness of sinful, worldly pleasures. My 30’s brought me back to Him. And I know that my 40s will be completely invested in growing the kingdom of Jesus. I am blessed and grateful that Jesus chose me to help grow His kingdom. I now know that I must decrease so He can increase. I am so excited to devote this year and every year forward to my King, my Messiah, my Christ. Will you join me?
Reading plan: Luke 19
Deeper reading plan: 2 Samuel 14,15
Prayer focus: Pray for the families of those lost in senseless killings in Boulder, CO and Atlanta, GA.
Common Sense Reborn 