The Joy of Salvation

SCRIPTURE Palms 51:10-13
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.

OBSERVATION
David said this prayer after the Prophet Nathan came to him and rebuked him for committing adultery with Bathsheba and murdering her husband. David had everything he wanted. He had power, prestige, wealth and all types of luxuries, but David wanted more. The times that we are living our like this. Americans want more of the world and they lust for things they can not have! Even though, we have been blessed it seems that our eyes continue to fall on things that our not ours. For those of us who have experienced moral failure, divorce, or other such life experience, it is a message of hope, healing, and restoration that reminds us that God's agenda is not to crush sinners under his feet, but to heal them and restore their relationship with Him.


APPLICATION
We love stories with perfect, happy endings, and we want sin forgiven without consequence. In reality, we can be forgiven for breaking the window, but we still have to sweep up the broken glass and repair the window. There are consequences to our actions, and like it or not, we must coexist with those consequences, just as David did. God is faithful to help us through the restoration and the process of healing. David called out to God and asked him to do the following; do not cast me from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Are we desiring his presence and Holy Spirit more than the things of the world? When it comes down to it, that's all I really have!
PRAYER
Lord, I desire you more than what this world has to offer. I desire your Holy Spirit and to be in your presence. Use me to turn people back to you as David did. Lord if you can restore David for his sins you can restore anyone. Help me not to judge people but to love them into the Kingdom. You want to create a right spirit and restore the joy of your salvation to all of us sinners.