Weakness and Grace

I've gotten to the end of the book I've been rereading about being a person "After God's Own Heart," and I've gotta share one last thing Mike Bickle said--

David faced many external enemies, but he also triumphed over a much more formidable foe: his own heart. He knew how to commit his spirit into God's hands when confronted by his own weakness. This is one of the hardest things to figure out in the Christian walk, but to be people after God's heart, we must.

The glory of the human story is that we can't exhaust God's mercy. Our weakness never disqualifies us if we sincerely repent. David discovered that there is a contingency for human weakness, which comes to us by God's grace. In his times of weakness, he ran toward God instead of away from Him.

I have taught about the life of David for more than 25 years, and I can find no recorded testimony in Scripture of a person more profoundly weak and also great in God. His story is filled with victory after victory alongside one weakness after another.

I remember one time compiling 10 sins committed by David and preaching them in one sermon. The congregation that Sunday was horrified. They decided they didn't like David anymore. They voted to censor him out of the children's church curriculum. Not really, but they were surprised at his number of failures.

I too felt like saying to David as I read about his life, "Hello! Don't you get it? You can't keep blowing it like this." Yet I imagine the Lord's response to me is, "No, don't you get it? Learn from this guy! If he can make it, so can you."

Maybe when I meet David in heaven he will be mad at me for preaching so many sermons that highlight his failures. He may say, "The Lord forgave me. Why did you keep bringing those things up?" I'll say, "Because we were so much like you that your life encouraged us."

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I'm encouraged, bloggerbuddies!