FINISH WELL to HIS GLORY

I love the Old Testament because it is full of stories of real and frail humans just like me.  Each year, I choose to read through the Bible, and the same dread slowly comes as I read of King David and then his son, King Solomon.  How grateful I am that God's reputation can handle the likes of us who desire to be Christ followers, yet at times, we fumble, stumble, and maybe limp along. Truly, we are more flawed than we realize!

 I grieve as I read of David's frailties, even though a man after God's own heart....disobedience with Bathsheba and his weaknesses in rearing his boys.  I sense that he was able to recoup and finish well, but I also sense he was bruised and bore some scars from the rebellion of his sons and of himself.  I see Solomon,one of his sons, who had the heart of obedience and desired to follow the LORD, at least in the beginning of his reign.  As the narrative moves along, he has disobeyed the LORD in regard to pagan wives who helped to steal his heart from God and then his love for horses, which caused him to trust in his resources rather than God in warfare.  I do not sense that Solomon finished as well as his dad because Ecclesiastes, if written by him, seems to portray a broken and crusty individual who was even more bruised and scarred than his dad. 

I am grateful that my life has not been staged in the Word of God for everyone to read and to sort through my frailties. The old song by the Gaithers come to mind, HE has made something beautiful of my life... in spite of me!  My heart cry, "O LORD, please allow me to finish well to your glory." 

 

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