19/10/2010 - TWO HIGHLY IMPORTANT REQUESTS

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Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. (Psalm 51:12)

Psalm 51 speaks both of David\’s repentance for having succumbed to temptation and his request for restoration. The lack of joy of salvation bothered him tremendously. It would be impossible for him to be happy in his walk with God if he did not restore the happiness he had experienced throughout his life and which gave him the inspiration to compose so many songs. Far from the Most High, all he had left was the regret of having been carried away by the spirit of deception and crime (II Samuel 11:1-26).

All those who fall feel how much it hurts to depart from the Father: the days are cast in gloom and life loses its meaning, but what hurts the most is when an individual realizes that being in God\’s presence is a thing of the past. However, with the death of Christ on Calvary, it is easy to revert this situation: man just needs to truly repent and let Jesus live in his heart. While this does not occur in his soul, he will continue as a rolling stone falling from a mountain and hurting other people.

The king of Israel’s soul found its way back to happiness and cried out, asking God to restore the joy of His salvation. My brethren, have you fallen? Has sadness taken hold of your soul and made you feel the most miserable of mortals? If the answer is yes, draw near to the Father in prayer and cry from the depths of your heart for restoration. He can and He wants to restore your life, but if you continue with this feeling of guilt, with the pangs of conscience, you will not enjoy the pleasures that are available to those who truly serve God.

Being in communion with the Lord is feeling good about oneself. So, feeling joy again is a sign that Jesus returned to live in your heart, which is the place He left when you allowed transgression to enter it – this happens because Christ and sin cannot coexist in the same space. So he whose mind is full of evil thoughts will never experience the divine communion; after all, the Lord dwells in the hearts of those who know His commandments and keep them.

Sin is the saddest thing that can affect any of God’s children. The devil is well aware of this and therefore he sends the most charming people to entice you. In times like these, if man is unwise, he will think that he was lured because he is different from other people and ends up giving way to temptation and falling in snares.

Besides the restoration of joy, the psalmist asked to be upheld by God’s generous spirit. Because he feared the Lord\’s hand, David did not want to commit a future error, so he asked God to be deterred at the sign of the slightest transgression. That\’s what you should ask too because this generous Spirit will notice the slightest mistake and will make you regret it. One must be careful, because Satan does not stop walking around and trying to devour you (1 Peter 5:8). Cry out to the Lord to give you a generous spirit too so that every time you feel temptation is approaching you can say the same prayer David said.

In Christ with love,

R. R. Soares