Praying Through Psalm 51
Today, let’s spend time praying through Psalm 51.
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
Ask God to search your heart and show you what to confess before Him. Did you lose your temper with a loved one? Have you let bitterness seep into your heart? Does an addiction have a grasp on you – shopping, food, gaming, social media, pornography, alcohol or other substance? Confess it to God, praying Psalm 51:1-2.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
In what area do you feel like you don’t have a “pure heart”? Where do you need His help to create a “steadfast spirit”? Is it in the same area where you need to have a “pure heart”? Only God can purify us. Only God can strengthen us and renew our spirit. Ask Him to forgive your sins, to cleanse your heart, and to give you “a steadfast spirit.”
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Sometimes we become complacent in our sin, and a barrier builds up between us and God. Maybe that’s where you’re at now, and you don’t feel joyful in your salvation. James 4:17 (NLT) says, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” Is there something that you know God wants you to do, but you’re reluctant to take that step of faith? Psalm 51:12 in the New Living Translation is a great verse to memorize, meditate on and ask God to make it the cry of your heart. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.”
17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
Do you want to have a heart after God, like David did? Daily ask God to examine your heart. Is it self-centered, prideful, hanging onto sin? Or is it contrite and humble, sensitive to the Holy Spirit? Then confess and remember that Psalm 103:12 says, “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”
Trust in the knowledge that if you confess with a broken and contrite heart, He forgives you. You don’t need to beat yourself up over and over again. He loves you, forgives you, and wants to be in an authentic relationship with you. Your Creator and Heavenly Father is for you. Come to Him as a humble child. He is waiting for you.
Cyndie de Neve
Creative Senior Director
Real Joy
Some years ago, through a divine appointment I met Becky who became my mentor and best friend. She emailed a prayer request that I felt led to respond to personally which began our brief but important friendship. Becky had ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and her husband Multiple Sclerosis. They came to EFCC because it was easily accessible with their physical challenges. I initially rebelled against a friendship with Becky, but God quickly arranged for us to meet one day in person after church and I felt drawn to her joyful, sweet spirit. I’d recently lost a good friend of many years to cancer and I’d just gone through six months of cancer treatments myself. I longed for health and healthy friends; another painful loss Lord? Please no!
God had other plans. Soon we were meeting for coffee and praying for each other. We shared life and most importantly prayed for each other. I began visiting her at her home when she could no longer drive, and God arranged that her new down-sized home was just minutes away from me. Though she eventually lost all of her motor skills and eventually could barely speak, she never lost her joy and never stopped praying for everyone on her long prayer list.
What does this have to do with David’s cry out to the Lord to restore the joy of his salvation? David knew the joy that comes from knowing the Lord, but his own selfish sin separated him from God. As believers, we all still sin, fail the Lord, and sometimes disobey Him. The sins we commit cause us to lose our joy. After we sin, we feel that something’s wrong; we sense something missing between us and the Lord. Isaiah 59:2 tells us, “Your iniquities have become a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.”
Even when we don’t “feel” his presence, God has repeatedly promised never to leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5) Will you continue to love, trust, obey, and worship God, even when you have no sense of his presence or visible evidence of his work in your life? The awful circumstance of disease that could have separated Becky from her peace & joy didn’t succeed. Becky’s last words to me -- “you’re my joy” still bring me joy, and she knew true inner joy comes from relationship with the Lord.
Let’s pray for his help today to navigate the potholes on life’s road and thank him for reminding us that we can always look to him for help.
Deb Hill
Executive Administrative Assistant
Honesty Is the Best Policy
Honesty is the best policy, a phrase we’re almost all familiar with, but not one that all of us are really comfortable with. Even in Scriptures, I find it fascinating how blunt and honest the Bible can be about life situations. I mean, look at the little note written to the director about this particular psalm, it tells us that this psalm was written after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and this is what he said after he was confronted by Nathan.
Honesty in Scripture makes a lot of sense, even when it’s messy because life is MESSY!
As we look at this passage today, don’t miss the product of Nathan’s honesty with David; it’s honesty with God. Have you faced a situation like this before? Have you ever been confronted by God or someone else about your sin? What does it drive you towards? As I see it, it usually drives us towards bitterness and a self-deception or towards confession and repentance.
As we see in the story of David, David’s first action after confrontation was confession. He cries out to God begging for forgiveness. There’s an important lesson in here for us, we want to be people that are driven to repentance and forgiveness, not bitterness and self-deception. Repentance does a couple of key things that we see in this Psalm. First, repentance gives us a platform to honesty. Honesty before God and before others. The ability to own up to our own humanity and realize the depths of our sin and brokenness. However, it’s not just that, repentance not only gives us the platform to honesty with God, but it also gives us a pathway towards a reconciled relationship with God. It’s an invitation to come home.
David lived in a position of immense privilege and power, but ultimately, his life was in turmoil because of both his moral failure and inability to be honest before God. Have you ever found yourself with an inability to be honest with God? Sometimes we deceive ourselves in the process of hiding. Beloved, God sees you, knows you, and loves you. Allow that love to pave the way towards honesty, which provides the platform to be honest and the pathway to come home.
Lord, thank you that you know my innermost being and you love me just as I am. Search me, God, and know my heart, test me, and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Amen.
Seth Redden
High School Pastor
Bad to the Bone
Everyone reading this knows that sin is bad. We know that it is bad for our souls, but did you know that it is bad for your bones as well? Maybe, George Thorogood wasn’t that far off when he claimed to be “Bad to the bone. B-B-B-B-Bad.” When you think about it, that isn’t too far from what David says here in Psalm 51, that hidden, ignored and unconfessed sin can actually be so bad for us that it is bad all the way down to our bones.
Now, at first glance this might sound like a strange way to talk about sin. We don’t tend to think about sin as something that can affect our physical bodies. Sin is a spiritual problem that causes primarily spiritual consequences… or so we’ve been taught. However, I think the fact that David’s language here messes with our preconceived notions ought to tell us something: Either we have a poor understanding of sin or we have a poor understanding of what it means to be human or both. In this case, I actually think it’s both.
Most of us have grown up being taught a worldview which strongly asserts that our bones are one type of thing (a physical substance) and our souls are a very different type of thing (a spiritual substance). In fact, we have been taught (often without even knowing it) that one of those substances is very, very important, while the other just gets in the way. Yep. You got it right, the soul is much more important than the body. But, what if I told you that this concept is actually more of a remnant of Modern Philosophy than of Biblical Theology? You see, strictly biblically speaking, there is no real distinction between soul and spirit and mind and body. You are one thing, not two or three, just one. And that means that sin affects more than just a part of you, it affects all of you.
What is bad for you spiritually can be bad for you physically and vice versa. This is why David longs for his broken bones to rejoice again. In Psalm 38:3, he says, “there is no health in my bones because of my sin.”
Of course, not all physical infirmities are caused by sin, but clearly some are. And those that are caused by sin are apparently caused by unconfessed sin, (see Psalm 32:3). Have you ever thought about the feel of sin in your bones? Have you ever felt bad to the bone? Maybe it’s time to consider that question. Maybe it’s time that we realize what our sin is really doing to us and to pray like David. Spend some time today praying that God would allow even your bones to rejoice in Jesus.
Josh Rose
Pastor of Adult Ministries
The Severity of Sin
Long distance running is a sadistic sport. The only way you can prepare is to suffer, long and hard, under the unforgiving sun. Every summer, my coach was obsessed with giving us a high mileage count and for increasing our pain tolerance.
When we became used to suffering in practice we didn’t mind it as much when it mattered. Unfortunately, what’s true in our pain tolerance is also true of our own moral code; when we become used to sin we don’t mind it as much even when it matters.
In our scandal saturated society, sin and failure have almost become the expected outcome. How many times have we seen a public figure in culture, politics, finance, and especially the church fall from grace? If this weren’t enough, our society and institutions increasingly lead with a clouded sense of what’s up from down, right from wrong, righteous from wretched.
But this Psalm makes it very clear: David’s sin in sleeping with Bathsheba is egregiously offensive to God. “Against you, you only, have I sinned,” (Psalm 51:4). Though David’s sin had full fledged consequences, the preeminent one was a breach in relationship with the one who “anointed David king over Israel, delivered him from the hand of Saul… gave him Saul’s house and wives into his arms. He gave him all Israel and Judah. And if all this was too little, I would give you even more.” (2 Samuel 12:7-8, paraphrased).
While God gave David tremendous grace, favor, and special treatment - none of this was satisfying to the entitled David, and he ruined everything in one childish moment. And the consequences of this sin led to self-deception, a reckoning in his family and friendships, a compromise of the kingdom, and a severing of relationship with God Himself. Sin has a four-fledged ability to ruin the self, relationships, creation, and the divine connection.
The severity of this misjudgement on David’s part likewise cost him a divided household, destruction to the kingdom, public shame and embarrassment, and the derailment of the kingdom beyond his own reign.
Though we live in a world full of compromise and blurred lines, it would be wise of us to pay attention to David’s example. Sin may be a familiar presence in our world, but it is no less potent in its terrible ability to ruin everything.
What are the areas of our lives, individual and corporate, where we have gotten too close to the stinging effects of sin? Join me in praying for the Lord’s mercy in drawing us back to Him!
Pastor Ryan Lunde
Young Adult Ministries
EXAMEN
Years ago I visited a Sunday School class where the teacher was talking to a group of young children about prayer. She explained how important it was to go to God with their hearts, cares and concerns while a number of the kids were getting wiggly and distracted. All of a sudden a little boy popped up on his knees, turned around to his friends and said, “You guys, REALLY, when you talk to God, He LISTENS!” It was one of the most profound messages on prayer I think I’ve ever heard, not only because of the simplicity of his words, but also because of the great faith expressed by a six year old boy. I’ve often reflected on that day and Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:3, “Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” The older we get, the more we tend to complicate things, including our approach to God in prayer. This child would simply tell you to tell Him what is on your heart and mind, knowing that He hears you. He could tell you with confidence that when you approach Him, He is ready to spend that time with you.
In another classroom, a teacher introduced the children to a new practice as they entered the room each week. They were given space on the walls to write out the ways in which they had seen God at work during the previous week. And in another space they were invited to write out the things that were difficult or painful for them. You might think that a bunch of 8- and 9-year-olds would opt for the other available activities at the beginning of the hour, but week after week we saw kids go straight to the wall, pick up a dry erase marker and write out, before the Lord, their thoughts and reflections. They had been introduced to a practice, although simplified, known as the Daily Examen.
The Examen is an ancient approach to prayer attributed to Saint Ignatius that simply encourages us to take a few minutes, usually at the end of the day, to reflect before the Lord on all the ways that you have noticed his activity in you, your life, and the world around you. It is a way of slowing down enough to pay attention to what is going on in your life, and like that little boy, to take it to your Heavenly Father, knowing that He hears.
Consider this simple way of practicing this approach to prayer next week: Set aside a few minutes, before getting too sleepy, to slow down, be still with God and review the events of the day with him.
Pray through these two questions: What things that were life-giving to me? What things were life-draining or difficult? Give thanks for the ways you’ve seen God at work in your life and ask him to give you grace for what is to come in the next day. Whether you are apprehensive, peaceful or excited, talk to God about it. In child-like simplicity, take your honest thoughts to your Heavenly Father with the deep conviction that He really listens.
Nicole Jiles
Director of Children’s Ministry
Choosing to Discern
Sometimes life is confusing and chaotic. Can I get an Amen!? This COVID season has brought so much good: a slowing down and opportunities for change. For many, it has also brought about stress, loneliness and disillusionment. As 21st century Americans living relatively comfortable lives, if we feel bewildered and uncertain about our future, I wonder what a young, 11th century BCE Hebrew boy must have felt. The Lord came to Samuel, in the middle of the night, conveying a message that would bring devastation on the house of his master Eli. Can you imagine the fear Samuel must have felt as he lay awake until morning, pondering the warning that he had heard from the Lord; no doubt questioning his next steps.
The following morning Eli came to Samuel and said in 1 Samuel 3:17, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” At that moment Samuel had a decision to make. He had the freedom to choose whether or not to obey both the Lord and Eli. In choosing obedience, he demonstrated discernment at a young age. Verse 19 continues with, “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.” This proved to be true throughout the rest of Samuel’s life as he went on to be the last of the Hebrew judges, anoint the first two Kings of Israel, and serve as a prophet and priest. All of these roles required knowing the truth of Scripture and a deep connection with and obedience to God. These values in Samuel’s life led to wise discernment.
We long for discernment, yet feeling confident in decisions can be very confusing. Discernment first and foremost comes from a heart relinquished to God. Being able to evaluate what is from the Lord and what is not, is dependent on knowing the truth found in Scripture. 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 says, “But test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” This does not have to be a mystery! 2 Peter 1:3 tells us that God’s “has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.” How then do we know when we are making a wise and discerning decision? Philippians 4:6-7 tells us about the peace, or consolation that follows when our desires are fully submitted to God and his will for our lives. The journey may be difficult, but God will not fail hearts that are relinquished to him.
In what area of your life are you seeking discernment, and searchingt Scripture for guidance? Are you seeking the Lord with a heart that is relinquished to him? Ask the Lord today for strength to obey and a heart to follow whatever the path may be.
Lynette Fuson
Women’s Ministry Director
Cultivating Space
Before COVID-19 came in and ruined everyone’s travel plans, my wife and I were avid travelers. Having lived in Spain for 10 months in 2016, it was my personal goal to see as much as possible and as quickly as possible. I would find myself putting together elaborate itineraries packed full of events. While the photos are great, looking back on that year, it doesn’t take me long to realize everything that I missed by not being present in the moment. While my body kept moving, I missed so much that God may have had for me if I just stopped for a minute to breathe.
Have you ever lived life this way? Ever felt like you’ve hurried through your to-do list and your days that you just felt like every day blurred together in a series of tasks and never-ending to-do’s? Eugene Peterson once wisely said, “Busyness is the enemy of spirituality. It is essentially laziness. It is doing the easy thing instead of the hard thing.” Doesn’t that seem counterintuitive? However, the discipline of slowing down to raise our awareness of God’s working is something that requires intentionality.
Most of us pack our days like I used to pack backpacks for vacations in Europe; stuffed to the absolute brim with no room to spare. The discipline of slowing is allowing intentional space and mindfulness to allow ourselves to see what it is that God might be doing in a particular space or moment. As a gardener cultivates the ground for the harvest, we can cultivate awareness of God’s working by slowing down. You won’t find any commandment in Scripture that says, “Thou shalt slow down” but you will find that on the 7th day, God rested. You will find that Eli, instead of chastising Samuel to go to bed because they’ve got a lot on the temple cleaning list tomorrow, encourages him to listen to what God might be saying. Perhaps we can learn from Jesus himself that in the midst of preaching, teaching, and healing, I never get the sense that he was ever hurried.
So, how can we practice slowing down? Here are some key practices:
Sabbath. The Lord commands it for a reason. Slow down, rest, worship, tend to your soul.
Build margin in your day: One of my favorite little Apple Watch apps is the “breathe” app. Six times a day, I get a reminder buzzing on my wrist to breathe. Maybe you have this or you set something up to build 30-second margins into your day to simply pray, be, and listen to what God might be doing in any given moment.
There are many other things you could do, modern life is quick (even in COVID!). Sometimes if we want to hear from God, like Samuel, we just have to slow down for a second to listen.
Pastor Seth Redden
High School Ministry
Junior High Band and the Art of Listening
1974: My 7th grade self decided to retire from piano after an illustrious four-year career and buy a pair of drumsticks. Our band director was a big-time drummer somewhere on the Vegas Strip. Following our first class, the director walked over and said, “You play piano, and sing, right?” “Yeah,” I said. He replied, “Transfer to band. You’re going to play French horn now,” and handed me a gray case that looked like a vacuum cleaner. The first week of band was torture. We learned two things -- how to make a sound and how to tune. The director would play a note, then stand in front of us, helping match his pitch with prompts like, “No, a little higher ... push the slide in ... more air, tighten the sides of your mouth -- good, there!”
Tuning our hearts to God is a lot like this. He gently prompts us as we listen and adjust to Him. Here’s how I’ve learned to listen and tune my heart to His:
1. Turn down everything else. Ever noticed how quiet it gets at the start of a symphony? The group is taking time to tune and adjust. They listen to the common pitch being played and adjust to everyone else. To hear God’s voice, turn down the noise around you.
2. Pay attention. Inexperienced musicians spend so much time trying to make a sound that they forget they’re supposed to be paying attention to the tone the director is producing. “Jesus said, I am the Way the Truth and the Life.” He is the tonal center for us. When a musician tunes up, they alternate listening to the absolute pitch, then themselves, comparing and adjusting. This should be true for believers when praying. Listen. Evaluate. Adjust.
3. Keep tuning and learn “muscle memory.” Musicians constantly re-tune, even between songs. Playing in tune is about feeling the note. Repetition reinforces the ability to play in tune –- it’s called “muscle memory.” Jesus said, “my sheep hear my voice.” We learn to identify the Lord’s voice as we become familiar with it, which takes practice.
4. Learn to play in tune with others. Some musicians have “perfect pitch,” but many of them are incapable of playing in tune with other musicians. Or, their technique is so bad they can’t produce a note with quality or consistency, even though they hear the note in tune. Only Christ has “perfect pitch,” spiritually-speaking, and He would rather we learn to play in tune with one another. It’s called “unity.” When the Lord speaks, He shares with more than one person. God isn’t interested in solo acts. He unites us to create a symphony of praise, declaring His glory and kingdom work. We must learn to tune to one another as we tune to Christ.
Lord, Jesus, help us to listen for Your voice in the midst of the mundane and the ordinary. Grant us the courage, faith and humility to adjust our lives to your call. We want to sensitize ourselves to Your presence and voice. Speak Lord, we are listening; we want to stay in tune and in step with Your Spirit today. Amen!
Dave Hook
Pastor of Worship
I'm Listening
As a child I couldn’t correctly say all my letters (I probably still don’t!), so once a week I would get pulled out of class to go practice speaking correctly. We would play games that would get me to say certain sounds or words, we would have different exercises to accomplish a goal, and sometimes there were activities to do at home. I remember how much I would just listen to the instructor pronouncing the sounds and trying to sound the same. Listening was just as much work as talking.
Listening to God and talking to God takes practice, it takes different forms, and it takes time. God speaks today powerfully, just as he has throughout history. John 10:10 reminds us that the people who follow Jesus (his sheep) can hear his voice which signifies a relationship with him and lets them follow him. Now don’t assume you need an audible voice.
God speaks to us through his creation to let us know how powerful he is (Psalm 19:1-2). He gave us a wonderful book to get to know him (2 Timothy 3:16) and it still speaks powerfully through it. He also puts people in your life to speak through (Hebrews 1:1-2). God also gifted us a helper to hear him, the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 16:13). He did all this so we could know him, follow him, and bring others on this journey with us.
In my speech therapy, it took time to learn what I was doing wrong so I could hear how things actually sounded. It took time to talk to feel comfortable listening, (and learning how to actually listen). When we cultivate a listening ear and a soft heart, we can hear God speak.
God is speaking to us in meaningful and powerful ways. Take a moment to think about times when verses seem to leap off the page and make sense, think of a moment when someone called or came to you in a time of need, think of a time when you could feel a nudge to go do something or stop doing something, and think of a time when the sermon was just for you! All those and many more are how God is speaking to you today.
Can you set aside time today to pray and listen? Ask him for help to hear his voice and he will help you.
Jeremy Johnson
Pastor of Men’s Ministry
