I love how David talked to his own soul.

He speaks words of instruction and encouragement and reminders about the things that we are so prone to forget.
At least I am.
Until my selfishness and entitlement bubble up and seep out through the holes in my faith making a mess of everything.

Then I remember what God never forgets.

For He knows my frame.
He remembers that we are dust.
Psalm 103:14

That beautiful Psalm is the place to run when you’ve failed and you know it.

The first step back is worship.
Don’t you love that?
It’s not beating yourself up over your weakness, it’s refocusing your heart and mind on God.   Even His name is holy!

Yet He forgives all my iniquity.
Not in little bits measured out and rationed.  He forgives all and keeps forgiving.
He heals all our diseases, He redeems our lives and crowns us with steadfast love and mercy.

Thinking about Him calls my heart back to Him.  I’m drawn in again to His perfection, assured of His loving acceptance by His own description of Himself as my father.  He speaks to me of His compassion and tells me He understands my innate weakness.

I am not yet what He knows I will one day be.

I love how Paul Tripp has described our experience as believers.
He says we are living between the already and the not yet.

I’m born again by the Spirit, a new creation in Christ.
And I still live in a body fashioned of dust; the already and the not yet.

Knowing that I’m suppose to look not just to my own interest, but also to the interests of others—I still let the dust dictate.

But He forgives and His steadfast love, His Father love pulls me back in close so that I feel no distance between us.  There is no rejection, no denial, no holding me at arms length.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name.

Photo by Milada Vigerova
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