Our Gracious God

I hope we have all noticed how gracious God is to us. Even though we fail, and sometimes, we fail badly, God doesn't give up on us. He doesn't treat us as "second class" Christians. Often, God's grace is mixed with a huge amount of mercy, too. All of this is true, because God is love. Therefore, He always acts with grace, and He often acts in mercy. We see this in the genealogy of David. (I Chronicles 3:5) After David became the king of Israel, he had many sons. Four of those sons were born to Bathsheba in Jerusalem. Then, one of those sons, Solomon, became king after David. We see the grace and mercy of God in all of this. I want us to consider this a little more today and thank God for it.

David was not a perfect believer. In fact, he had many faults. However, David was a man after God's own heart. He loved the Lord, and God blessed him in spite of his sins. Of course, David committed adultery with Bathsheba. Then, he had her husband killed to try to cover for his sin. However, God still allowed David to continue as the king, and the next king was the son of the woman with whom he committed adultery. See what I mean. David confessed his sins. (Psalm 51) God forgave him, and God did not put him down into a lower group of believers. In fact, God blessed him. What does that say for us? We must not let the devil make us feel guilt and shame because of our sins. We must not think we are unworthy of serving the Lord, once we have sought forgiveness. We must see the grace and mercy of God, embrace it, and go forward with the mindset to serve the Lord well and to stay away from further sins, since we see the seriousness of them. I know not all of us have committed adultery and murder, but we have all sinned after our salvation. We have failed the Lord, but like Peter, we can be restored and used by God in His service in great ways. (Acts 2) I pray our Gracious God will use all of us, as believers, to accomplish His will for us, even in our weakness

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Tomorrow, I intend to read I Chronicles 4-7.