***Hey good morning Mark Lanier here with your video thought for the day so I want to talk about
dealing with sin and regret this morning because last week I was talking to a buddy of mine that I
I've known since I was heavens before I was old enough to drive he was a real spiritual force
in my life especially in early years but we've kept up through the years and I was asking him
about his family and how folks were doing and and uh one of his kids and one of his adult daughters
has a a a new um uh boyfriend who seems like just a great great guy and my buddy reminded me of her
earlier marriage and she had been married and her husband had been having an affair
on her but the daughter was in total denial
and as this world turns and as God moves the chess pieces on the board
my buddy um actually ran into his son-in-law and his son-in-law's girlfriend
at a time and in a place where it was very apparent that the affair was going on
and uh my buddy went and said to the fella um you know hey you're busted man I’m here I
saw this I I’m aware of what you're doing um you need to take your girlfriend home or whatever and
and you need to go home and read Psalm 51 and then let's talk in the morning um the the son-in-law uh
instead just went and filed for divorce and and uh it's actually turned out quite well as as the
daughter has found someone who's a wonderful uh man and and uh great great uh thing at this point
but it it made me think you know what advice is that go read Psalm 51.
I don't know when the last time you read Psalm 51 but it's a Psalm that's attributed to King David
after David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and not only committed adultery with Bathsheba
but orchestrated the killing of Bathsheba’s husband to cover up
uh David fathering the child that was in utero that that Bathsheba was pregnant with
and and after this issue of not only the sexual sin but the the shedding of
innocent blood David writes this incredible Psalm of repentance he says have mercy Lord
in your kindness in your compassion just blot out my iniquity
that this psalm talks about how my sin is always before me and seeks God's forgiveness
and it's all wrapped up in confession to God and it's all wrapped up in and seeking his mercy
and so I look at this and and I think you know how do you handle sin in the past
and I think the first stage for anybody has got to be coming to grips with it before the Lord
and and and praying I urge you to go back and pray Psalm 51
and then I think the next step for for most people in trying to deal with sin in the past
is trying to unwind any of the consequences you can
and oftentimes that might mean going to someone and confessing and asking for forgiveness
I think sometimes that means other things
uh it it it it's trying to to to make situations as right as you can
that that may have been damaged or marred because of your sin so we're in a holiday season
and it's the season where God shows his love to mankind by reaching out and doing the
ultimate act of forgiveness um so that there's a just basis for forgiveness with
God but I think we all need to come to him and be sure that we confess our sin to him
and be sure that that we do what we can do to try to make things right
and that is uh sort of on my brain after that conversation with my friend
so I wanted to share it with you I hope that it blesses you today in the meantime I look forward
to sharing with you this week more video thoughts for the day but that's it for today God bless you