2 Samuel 12:7  Nathan said to David, “You are the man!  Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul…..’

vs. 13-14  David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”  And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die, nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.”

Ladies, David was known for being a “man after God’s own heart” and yet he wasn’t perfect, obviously.  I believe part of the reason he was referred to that way was because of the way he responded when he was confronted with sin when it was his.  He trusted God when it seemed he had no way out and he loved God and wanted to follow His leading.  Was he perfect?  No! But, he was striving to be who he believed God wanted him to be even when he sinned, he owned his own mistakes.

Nathan had come to David after David had Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, killed in battle to cover up his affair with Bathsheba. He told him a story about a rich man taking a lamb from a poor man that the poor man loved and the rich man killed it and served it to his guests instead of killing one of his own.  David was angry and said the man deserved to die for what he did and that is when Nathan told him – “You are the man David!”  David was quick to judge for the poor man and the lamb but it never occurred to him that Nathan was talking about his sin.  When you look at verse 13 though David didn’t try to deny it – he owned his own sin and Nathan told him that God was extending his grace and he wouldn’t die.

How do you respond when you are brought face to face with sin in your life by someone that God has revealed it to?  Are you quick to get defensive or deny it or do you own it and take responsibility for it like David did and allow God to convict you deeply for the wrong.  As someone said to me the other day, I wonder what God’s response to David would have been if David had jumped into denial and got defensive?  He could have lied and said Nathan didn’t know what he was talking about, but he didn’t.  He owned it.

Part of growing up spiritually is learning to own our mistakes, asking for forgiveness – before we “get caught” and then moving forward in God’s grace.  We need to claim victory over our sin by owning it.  Victory and healing only comes through facing what we have done wrong and learning from it so we don’t continue to make the same mistakes.  Ask God to give you the strength to do what is right so you can move forward.  The best is yet to come but obedience must, must, must come first!

Quote:  “It’s in the struggle itself that you define yourself.”  Pat Buchanan