The stain

One evening, while David was walking on the flat roof of his palace, he saw a beautiful woman having a bath. He told his servants to find out who she was and bring her to the palace. When David found out that she was married and that her husband was in the army fighting the Ammonites, he sent a message to the commander telling him to move Uriah to the front lines, where the fighting was fiercest. David wanted Uriah to be killed so he could marry his wife, Bathsheba.

Uriah was killed, and David married Bathsheba. What he had done was wrong in the Lord’s eyes. So the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to show David that he had taken something very precious from someone else. Then David confessed his sin and said, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

Will the Lord forgive me for something really bad?

Do you have old clothes that are stained? Maybe there is a blob of ink or paint that just won’t come out completely, no matter how many times it has been through the wash.

What David did was really bad! He wanted something (or someone) that didn’t belong to him. He had Uriah killed and brought dishonor to the Lord. Do you think David deserved to be forgiven after all that the Lord had done for him? No, David did not deserve forgiveness, and neither do we! Not one of us has an excuse for the wrong things we have done.

But God is gracious. That means He is willing to forgive every sin—no matter how terrible it may seem. But for us to be forgiven, someone had to take the blame and the punishment for our sin. That person is Jesus. He loves us so much that He chose to die on a cross so that His blood could wash the stains of sin from our hearts and make us clean and pure like snow.

Verse for today

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7

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