Reasonable Resolutions

Hello, lovely people!

Happy New Year!

 

I hope 2014 for you will be as amazing as you expect it to be :-)

 

I saw my fellow blogger, Morgan, yesterday and she said that she had been looking for some encouraging words from me lol

So what better way to start of the New Year but with some TRUTH!

 

Psalm 51 is said to be a one of the "Psalms of Confession".

And rightly so.

The first 12 verses read as so:

Psalm 51:1-12 KJV
 

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to they loving kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee, the only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceice me.

6 Behold, thou  desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part that shalt make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness: that the bones which tho hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me now away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

 

 

Everytime I read those verses, I don't think about how bad I feel when I sin,

but it makes me so HAPPY that I can go to God when I mess up and ask him to clean up my heart!

A lot of the time, we try to put up a facade for the people around us like we never do anything wrong,

but when it's just us and God, He knows.

So there's no use in trying to cover it up.

Be honest with Him and confess.

And if you want to change, all you have to do is just ASK Him!

He loves our honesty! And He will honor our requests!

 

 

One of my favorite verses is from my favorite book: Romans!

Romans 12:1 KJV

 

I beseech you therefore, bretheren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

 

 

 

It took me a long time to understand what Paul meant by "living sacrifice".

But David makes it clear in Psalm 51

 

Psalm 51:16-17 KJV

 

16 For thou desirest not sacrifice; else I would give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, tho wilt not despise.

 

 

The definitions of "contrite" are:

1. caused by or showing sincere remorse

2. filled with a sense of guilt and the deisre for atonement.

3. penitent -> which means feeling or expressing sorrow for sin or wrongdoing and disposed to atonement and amendment.

 

So we are to present ourselves to God, sincerely sorry for the wrong we have done, giving Him the broken pieces our old nature and allowing Him to clothe us with HIS nature!

How easy is that?!

 

Like I said before, just be honest with yourself and with God.

We all deal with things we know are wrong but we don't know how to stop.

Just ask God to remove your desire for those things not like Him and replace them with a desire for Him!

 

We can start 2014 off with a clean slate!

A confession of sin and a dedication to God's plan for our lives!

What a resolution!

 

 

See you in the next post!

 

xoxo, Tasha