Sometimes smart people do dumb things, wise people do foolish things, and Godly people do sinful things. Some of those things are big, dark, and ugly that may be clouding the past, and keeping them from a great future. Maybe it’s a secret we’ve never told anyone like an abortion, an affair, or stealing something, a lie we’ve told.
Regardless of how we have messed up, the one thing many people is that we have all made mistakes. Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Yet, many of us don’t know how to recover afterward.
In today’s world things are getting dark. It’s becoming harder and harder to ignore the signs of the times. It might be a good idea to get right with God.
So, how do we get right with God after we’ve done something entirely wrong?
The Bible tells of an account of David which is one of the best examples of someone who blew it big time and then got his life right with God. David was one of the most Godly men in the Bible. He loved the Lord, yet in his weak moments he found himself committing adultery with Bathsheba and then trying to cover it up by murdering her husband.
Psalm 51 gives us a mental image of what’s going on inside David’s heart after Nathan the prophet confronts David about his sin. 2 Samual 12 shows us the steps David took on his road to spiritual recovery.
Here’s a breakdown of the steps David took to get tight with God:
Step 1: Come clean with God. Get honest and get your mistakes out in the open. Sometimes we become afraid of losing our reputation or being publicly exposed. And sometimes we’re afraid of losing the security we get from indulging in our “favorite sin.” But the peace we get in return for coming clean will be worth it. We can trust that God’s ultimate outcome will be good.
Step 2: Ask God for forgiveness. We have to ask God to wash, cleanse, and forgive us. David doesn’t try to negotiate a deal with God or minimize His sin. He says,
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions” -Psalm 51:1
Step 3: Own responsibility for your sin. We need to own our part in our mistakes and also their consequences.
“For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, and you only, I have sinned, and done that which is evil in your sight, that you may be proved right when you speak, and justified when you judge” -Psalm 51:3-4
Step 4: Accept God’s forgiveness and cleansing. Like David, once we confess to God that we messed up and tell God we want a restored relationship with Him, at that very moment we receive His grace and forgiveness. But in order to experience God’s forgiveness, we first need to believe we are forvgiven, accepted and loved unconditionally by Him.
Step 5: Request a fresh work of grace. Maybe you’ve been tempted and found yourself saying, “I’ll go ahead and sin and then ask for grace later.” What we need is for God to create a fresh work in our hearts so that we don’t want anything to do with sin. Like David, we need to pray, “create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast Spirit within me.” (Psalm 51: 10).
Step 6: Resolve to use past failures for God’s work. God wants to use the most difficult, sinful thing we’ve ever done and make us a trophy of His grace. God will use all of our sins to glorify Him if we let Him. David tells God, When you do this new work in me, “then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise” ( Psalm 51: 13, 15).
Step 7: Pray for limited fallout. Our sin never affects just us individually. But we can pray that in His grace, God will minimize the damage our sins might have had on those around us.
Over and over in the Bible, we are reminded that we serve a God who, although He doesn’t treat sin lightly, understands that we are human and struggle with sin. And out of His life for us, He wants to forgive us and take our very worst moments and claim them for Himself.
If you’re like me I was taught that if I make a mistake or do something bad God will punish me for it. Psalm 103:12 says that God removed our sins as far as the east is from the west.
“As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
From Pity to Praise 