Restoring Right Relationship

Relationships can be fixed. God has given us a way to mend a broken relationship.  It may seem impossible.  It may seem like there is no hope.  The sadness, disappointment, and the frustration may be too great.  The hurt, sorrow, and pain may go too deep.  The accusations and lies may have gone too far.  The insensitivity and cruelty may have been too much.  Don’t despair, just as the human body is capable of healing from physical injury and wounds, we are capable of experiencing relational healing as well!  The process is not easy, but healing starts in our relationship with God.  Let’s take another look at King David as an example . . .

READ:  Psalm 51:1-19

According to the title, King David wrote Psalm 51, “when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba”.  Psalm 51 is a prayer to God, revealing in greater depth, David’s attitude of repentance and confession that we first see in 2 Samuel 12:13 when he said, “I have sinned against the Lord”.  Psalm 51 provides us a practical example of how CONFESSING our sin to God RESTORES a right relationship with Him and with others!  After David was convicted of his sin, David recognizes there is NOTHING he can do to make things right, he can’t undo a pregnancy, he can’t bring a dead husband back to life, and so he humbly cries out to God for “mercy” (Ps. 51:1).  He acknowledges that the only acceptable response to God is a genuinely “broken spirit” and a “contrite heart” (Ps. 51:3-5, 17).  No matter what relational sin we have committed, when we confess it to God, He does all the work of forgiving us and restoring us back to right relationship with Him and others!  What does God do when we confess our relational sin and ask Him for mercy?

God WASHES us CLEAN from the stain of sin (Ps. 51:1-2, 7-9) – Water works miracles to remove dirt and stains.  That’s why parents’ demand that children take a bath/shower every day!  David uses several words including “blot out” (vss 1, 9), “wash” (vss 2, 7), “cleanse” (vs 2), and “purge” (vs 7) to describe the forgiveness he knew was necessary to remove the relational sin from his life.  1 John 1:9 says, “if we confess our sins, His is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (cf Mt. 6:12; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; Tit. 3:3-7)”.  When we confess our relational sin to God, He mercifully gives us a spiritual “bath” and removes the relational “stain” of sin that is in our lives.

God creates a new HEART in us (Ps. 51:10) – Anne Frank once said, "In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."  While I think we would all love for this to be true, evidenced by all of our behavior, it is not.  Matthew 15:19 says, “out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” When David was confronted with his sin, He did not try to justify his actions, he did not try to place blame one someone else, he understood that the source of his relational sin was his own evil and sinful heart.  David wrote in Psalm 24:3-4, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart”.  Being in right relationship with God and others requires a newly cleaned heart and God is the only one who is able, in His mercy, to give it to us (Jer 24:7; Ez. 11:19; 36:26).  When we confess our relational sin to God, He mercifully gives us a new heart which becomes our source of right relationship with God and others.

God removes the SEPARATION from Him that is caused by sin (Ps. 51:11) – Relational sin builds an impenetrable wall of division and hostility between us and God.  Every time we break one of God’s Ten Rules we cement another brick in the wall that separates us from God.  David recognized that his relational sin had built a wall that was preventing him from being in God’s “presence”.  By confessing his relational sin, David was asking God to knock down the wall that separated them.  Ephesians 2:13-16 says, “in Christ Jesus (we) who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  For He Himself is our peace, who . . . has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility . . . so making peace, and (reconciling) . . . to God . . . through the cross, thereby killing the hostility”.  When we confess our relational sin to God, He mercifully knocks down the wall of hostility that exists between us allowing us to be in His presence.

CONCLUSION
The greatest benefit of right relationship is JOY, a deep inner sense of happiness or pleasure.  Too often, our sin interrupts the joy God wants us to share with Him and others.  Whatever sin we have committed to interrupt our joy with God or others, if we confess it to God with a broken and contrite heart, in His mercy, He will forgive us, restore our right relationship, and allow us to experience the joy of right relationship once again!  Is there any relational sin in your life that you need to confess to God that is preventing you from experiencing the joy of right relationship with God and others?