Psalm 19

"How can I know all the sins lurking in my

heart?

Cleanse me from these hidden faults.

Keep you servant from deliberate sins!

Don't let them control me.

Then I will be free of guilt

and innocent of great sin.

May the words of my mouth

and the meditation of my heart

be pleasing to you, 

O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.""

Psalm 19:12-14

^"23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. ²⁴ Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. ²⁵ For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, ²⁶ for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he declares sinners to be right in his sight when they believe in Jesus."

 Ro 3:23-26

A few things popped out at me when I was reading Psalm 19.   David is asking God to keep him from deliberate sinning.   I'm looking into my prayer life, and though I confess my sins to God, I'm trying to remember the last time that I asked God to keep me from 'deliberate sinning'.    We do it all the time don't we?  Sin deliberately that is.. and then we have a slight pang of guilt, and only then realize that we need to ask forgiveness for those sins.

I need to start my day with this type of prayer.  David had it right.

Another thing that leaped up at me was the reminder of why we shouldn't sin. .... and it goes with the words "May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be PLEASING TO YOU."  .. we don't avoid/stop sinning because of what the others may think, or even guilt, but because it keeps us from pleasing God.

That's the type of relationship God wants, that's why Christ was sent to dye so that our sin doesn't keep us from Him .. because whatever we do, both in deed and the meditations of our heart, need to be pointed toward pleasing God the Father.   

We can be focused so much on work, children, marriage, friendships, that we loose focus that everything we do needs to be  what?  Please the heart of God.   Refocusing our eyes to He who created us, His Son that Saved us, and the Holy Spirit that guides us into the path of .. Pleasing Him.  Why? Because He is our Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  What a great reminder.  May we not let sin or anything else steer us off of that path.

Praise God!