“Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.” Psalms 51:1-3, 11-12, 15-17
We recently went to see the magnificently produced Sight and Sound Theatre production of “David.” You would be hard-pressed to find a member of the audience who left the theater untouched by the Spirit of God. The one big takeaway God gave me was the idea that King David sinned with Bathsheba—not because he was lazing around while his men were off fighting the war—but rather, because he was exhausted from doing God’s work and had allowed his busyness in serving to rob him of his close relationship with God.
Wow! If we consider David’s life up until this time, it seems he’d spent most of his time on the run for his life from Saul before he took the throne. And, after he was made King, he was consumed with warring to take the Promised Land and trying to fulfill all his kingly duties. He wasn’t the kind of king who let his army fight alone. He led. He had to be exhausted.
When we are exhausted—even when serving and doing God’s work—it’s easy to let our private time with God fall by the wayside.
This was deeply convicting for me. God has given me a lot of irons to keep in the fire—family, daily devotional writing, music, weekly podcast, running law practice, weekly discipleship classes—and the list goes on. And when asked how I do it—I’m usually quick to say “I don’t; God does.” And I know this is true because there is absolutely no way anything I do happens without God’s strength and wisdom.
But there are times when I’m too exhausted to do morning prayer right. There are times when I’m just snacking on God’s Word instead of bellying up to the table for a full meal. The “serving God” overtakes and overshadows my relationship with God. This is not good. In fact, it’s a recipe for disaster.
There is no way to effectively do God’s work—without God’s Spirit.
In fact—it’s dangerous!
Just look at what happened in David’s life. How else could a man the Bible identified as “a man after God’s own heart” have murdered one of his faithful warriors in order to cover up his adultery with his warrior’s wife? My friend, our flesh is never any better than the day we are born again. We are all capable of the most heinous sin.
The only way to keep from falling into the abyss is through intentionally staying close to God.
We MUST be faithful to our intimate relationship with God! To “serve God” without God fills us with dangerous pride and self-sufficiency. It gives us a sense of entitlement. We are robbed of the precious attitudes of Christ. The enemy is given a seat at the table in our house and believe me—it will eventually eat us alive!
We prevent the epic tragedies caused by our own sin by staying close to God. One of the greatest prayers I’ve added to my daily morning prayer list is from Psalms 51–which is the prayer of repentance David prayed after his horrible sin had been revealed:
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
Psalms 51:10
I ask God to reveal any sin that I need to confess and to give me genuine repentance. Sometimes it’s doubt, fear, or self-sufficiency. Sometimes it’s worse. I ask Him to give me an attitude of mourning towards my pet sins and help me to hunger and thirst after His righteousness. God is so merciful and kind. He understands my failings and my weaknesses. He restores my strong sense of His Spirit within me. Praise be to God, the Father of all comfort and strength!
When God’s Spirit is empowering my efforts of serving Him, He is my Defender against every storm and every temptation. He is my Rock and my Salvation. Why would I trust anyone else—including myself and my own strength—with the precious territory of my heart and mind?
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