Tag Archives: david sinned

April 29, 2025 · 5:57 AM

Confession And Restoration

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, I was in my teens. I remember vividly seeing prominent people in the faith succumb to sin and have to admit it publicly. There were famous ministers, TV preachers and even Christian’s singers who failed. I remember that Christians, for the most part, joined the world in tearing them down and shunning them. As is appropriate, they were removed from their ministry, but beyond that, they were shunned. Some went to prison, some to therapy and at least one became homeless. Watching their stories and how they were treated made me wonder if restoration was possible or if God could ever use them again. Then I wondered, “If I failed, could God still use me after I repented?”

In Judges 13-16, we read the story of Samson. He was called of God and set apart from before he was born to lead and deliver Israel. When he became a man, he was used by God to destroy Philistine towns and kill thousands of their people. However, fell in love with a Philistine woman named Delilah, which was against God’s rules on marrying pagan wives. She convinced him to give up the secret to his anointing and removed his hair. Chapter 16 verse 20 says, “He didn’t realize the Lord had left him” (NLT). He was publicly defeated, shamed and punished. Then at the end of the chapter, he prayed and asked God to use him again. His last act killed more of their enemies than at any other time in his life.

David was another prominent person who sinned and was called out. I love Psalm 51, which is his prayer for repentance. He asks God for mercy, to wash him clean of his guilt and to have a clean heart and a right spirit. Then verse 12 says, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.” After he faced his consequences, God not only restored that joy, but continued to use him. Stories like Samson and David show us that when we repent, God can still use us. We will face consequences for our actions, but God doesn’t give us a life sentence. If you’ve failed God, you must come clean, confess and repent. That’s the first step to having your joy restored and being used by God again.

Note: Every person mentioned here could have prevented their fall by being accountable to someone. Accountability is something we all need in our lives to help us walk upright with the Lord, whether we’re ministers or not. Find someone who you can trust to tell everything to so they can help you in your areas of weakness and temptation.

Photo by Jametlene Reskp on Unsplash

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October 14, 2024 · 5:38 AM

Songs Of Failure

When I was a kid, I remember going to Houston Oiler games. To get the crowd excited they would play the famous song that said, “‘Cause we’re the Houston Oilers. Houston Oilers. Houston Oilers number one!” That song was played all the time around here. I’ve been to other professional teams of various sports and the crowd will break out singing songs of victory for the team. If you support a favorite college in football, I bet you can name their fight song. Even in church we sing songs of victory over the enemy in our battle with him, but have you ever heard of or sang a song of failure? Could you imagine writing a song that exposed your greatest failure in life so that everyone could hear about it?

In 2 Samuel 12, the prophet Nathan walked into the king’s palace and told the king a story about two men. One was rich and the other was poor. The rich man had many sheep in his flock and the poor man just one, which he treated as his own child. A guest showed up at the rich man’s home and instead of killing one of his own sheep, he took the one from the poor man, slaughtered it and served it. David got angry and said that the rich man needed to be put to death. The prophet told him, “You are that man!” He exposed David’s hidden sin of murder and adultery. Instead of denying it or explaining it, he humbled himself. He then wrote Psalm 51, a beautiful song about his failure and need for repentance. Instead of keeping his sin from everyone but God, he exposed it to everyone.

Verse 1 says, “Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins” (NLT). It goes on and in verse 10 it says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.” Every one of us fail and sin at times, but do we take the time to expose those failures and confess them to God and others? James 5:16 tells us to confess our sins one to another, not just to God. Why? So we can find healing, restoration, and warn others of where temptations lay. Our song of failure can keep other people from wandering down the same path and keep them from making the same mistake. The enemy wants us to be so embarrassed about our failures that we keep quiet. God’s remedy is for us to sing it from the rooftops to help others on their way not to make the same mistakes. Confess your sins to each other and to God, then ask for a clean heart and a right spirit.

Photo by Riley Bartel on Unsplash

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November 9, 2022 · 5:44 AM

Rekindle Your Fire

One of my favorite things to do is to sit around a campfire and talk. I could do it for hours. People instinctively know to put another log on the fire. No one has to say it. Stories and conversations flow, and aren’t interrupted by putting more logs on it. When it’s time to go to bed, we just let the fire burn down to a bed of coals. In the morning, I’m usually the first one up. I’ll grab a log and a couple of smaller sticks and head over to the ashes. Buried deep beneath the ash, there’s usually a couple of embers left. I put the smaller sticks on top of them, get my face close to the ground, take a deep breath and blow as much air as I can onto those embers. In a matter of moments, the fire is back to going strong and the conversations continue.

We know that David was a man after God’s own heart. He fully trusted in Him and loved His Word. Because of his faith in God he slew a giant, he took on large numbers of the enemy and waited until God was ready for him to be king. His fire for God was unmatched, but at some point he quit putting new logs on the fire. 2 Samuel 11 starts off by telling us that when it was time for the kings to go to war, David stayed home and outsourced his position. He quit doing what he was supposed to. That’s when temptation struck and he sinned with Bathsheba. When God confronted him through the prophet, David chose to rekindle his fire and wrote Psalm 51. He continued to tend his fire after that and it burned bright until he died.

2 Timothy 1:6 says, “This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you” (NLT). It’s natural for us to seasons when we’re on fire for God and season where we’re just not feeling. We may go through the motions or just turn a cold shoulder to God. Either way, God is calling us to tend our fire and to return to our first love. We don’t have to go through what David did to return. We simply need to recognize that we need to have the Holy Spirit reignite our heart and passion for God. Those embers are still there and can be reignited. The gifts that have been lying dormant are ready to be rekindled and blaze for God’s glory. Don’t let another day pass. Read Psalm 51 as a prayer to fan the flames of your heart toward God.

Photo by Jeremy Bishop:

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January 21, 2014 · 7:42 AM

A Fresh Start

I was reading in Psalm 51 where he wrote about being confronted by the prophet Nathan. David had an adulterous affair, got the woman pregnant, had her husband killed and married her to cover it up. The prophet came and let him know that God saw everything. David broke down and repented. He wrote this Psalm to describe his need for forgiveness from God and what he needed to start over. God forgave him and David continued to be a man after God’s own heart.

I’ve always been attracted to verse 10 in that particular Psalm. It reads, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” That has been a prayer of mine for as long as I can remember. I want to always have a clean heart before God. I want to have a heart that is sensitive to His Spirit and isn’t too prideful to ask for forgiveness when I fail. David’s prayer here is proof that no matter how badly I mess up, God can forgive me and create a new heart in me.

As I read this chapter again, I started reading it in other versions to see how that verse translated. The Message caught my eye. It says it like this, “God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos in my life.” I have read that over and over because it’s just that good. We all need a fresh start every now and then. We need God to pull us from the mundane and to give us a new look at life. After we’ve sinned, we sometimes have to start over. Even in dealing with the consequences of our sins, God can still give us a fresh start.

The next part of that verse also speaks to me. “Shape a Genesis week from the chaos in my life.” I went back to Genesis 1 and read about that week. The first thing God created was light. When we have sinned or are living in sin, there is no light in our life. We have a dark cloud hanging over us. God will come in and bring light back into our lives and then cause things to grow again. God can take the chaos that dominates your life today and create order, life and peace. All He has to do is speak into it.

If you’re living in that chaos today, invite God to speak into your life and to shape a Genesis week for you. If you have sin in your life you haven’t repented of because you think God won’t forgive you, ask Him to create a new heart in you and to give you a fresh start. God loves new beginnings and He loves to create things. He delights in you and wants to bring light back into your life today. The only thing holding Him back is you. Pray today that God would allow you to start fresh with Him. He will do it. I promise.

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