O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. Psalm 86:5
We’ve all tried to hide a mistake. But what happens when it finally comes to light?
Flora was rushing to finish cleaning a large house before picking up her kids from school. In her haste, she knocked an antique teapot off a shelf. It shattered. Panicked, she pieced it back together and placed it back, hoping it would go unnoticed. It looked unbroken.
David was a king who tried to cover up something he had broken—another man’s marriage. While the husband was away, David took the man’s wife. When she became pregnant, David had her husband killed and quickly married her, thinking, “All covered up.”
Flora lost her job, not because of the broken teapot but for her dishonesty. And David lost the infant son who was born from his affair. The truth is none of us are that different. It’s human nature to hide and run when we’ve sinned.
But the Bible tells us that we don’t need to run from God when we mess up. We’re actually invited to run to Him in our sin. David wrote, “Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt … And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone … O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help … What joy [it is] for those whose record the Lord has cleared of guilt (Psalm 32:5 & 32:2)
When we uncover our sin and run to God with it, He covers over all of it, past, present and future. Because, as David wrote: “ … you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness” (Psalm 86:15).
