Spend Time With That Friend

God is so great!  Currently I feel the Holy Spirit so close and whenever I have that feeling I try to make it a point to stop everything I’m doing and just talk to him.  The Holy Spirit is like that best friend in the entire world.  If they stop by or call un-expectantly your whole world stops and you just want to spend time with that friend.  That feeling is the same for us Christians and the Holy Spirit.Our pastor recently delivered a great sermon on Psalms 51.  A little background on Psalms 51; King David is the only person in the entire bible that is deemed the title of “One after God’s own heart.”  Any time I read that my heart aches to be labeled that.  I desperately crave to be a man after God’s own heart.  There is an intimacy that permeates through that sentiment.  An intimacy that once you have it you never let go, like a child holding on to their “blankie.”  And no matter how much I yearn for that intimacy I know God wants that intimacy with you and me a thousand times more.Even though King David was labeled a man after God’s own heart he was still a man subject to sin and temptation like the rest of us.  One day the eyes of King David caught a women named Bathsheba bathing and his heart instantly started lusting for her.  He called for her to come to him which led to King David giving into his flesh's desire and he slept with Bathsheba.  What made the matter even worse was that Bathsheba was married to Uriah who was out fighting for Israel under King David’s orders.  To compound this situation even more Bathsheba became pregnant.  David devised a plan to bring Uriah off the battle field so Uriah could “come home to his wife.”  However, that plan didn’t work so David had Uriah sent to the front of the battlefield and he was eventually killed.For a man that is “after God’s own heart” that sure is a big screw up.  However that label is what drove him to write Psalms 51.  As David is writing this verse we can feel the heartache pouring out from the bottom of his heart as he seeks forgiveness.  He wasn’t afraid to hide anything in this confession, even pleading with God not to take his best friend, the Holy Spirit, from him.

Psalms 51:11 - Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. (NIV)

If you feel as though you have screwed up beyond repair, take heart that even the Godliest people in the past/present/future have messed up.  You can never fall out of God's grace no matter how unworthy you feel.  However if you are feeling convicted, desperate, anxious, depressed, unworthy, useless, or anything else because of something you did then I ask that you read through Psalms 51.  Adopt it as your own prayer for forgiveness because God will never fail you as long as you give him your whole heart.

Psalms 51 – ¹⁶ you do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. ¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. (NIV)

 Amy Grant - Better Than A Hallelujahhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm5kx3xqmg0