O Wretched Soul!

Wretched - Deeply afflicted, dejected, or distressed in body or mind.

 

O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Romans 7:24 NKJV.

Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God's law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin. Romans 7:25 NLT.

Paul understood the struggles of a fallible human being.

 

For the choir director: A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love. Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin. For I recognise my rebellion; it haunts me day and night. Psalm 51:1-3 NLT. David was a man after God's heart. Yet, he committed adultery and murder.

 

Arresting Jesus, they marched him off and took him into the house of the Chief Priest. Peter followed, but at a safe distance. In the middle of the courtyard some people had started a fire and were sitting around it, trying to keep warm. One of the serving maids sitting at the fire noticed him, then took a second look and said, "This man was with him!" He denied it, "Woman, I don't even know him." A short time later, someone else noticed him and said, "You're one of them." But Peter denied it: "Man, I am not."

 

About an hour later, someone else spoke up, really adamant: "He's got to have been with him! He's got 'Galilean' written all over him." Peter said, "Man, I don't know what you're talking about." At that very moment, the last word hardly off his lips, a rooster crowed. Just then, the Master turned and looked at Peter. Peter remembered what the Master had said to him: "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times." He went out and cried and cried and cried. Luke 22:54-62 The Message. Peter pledged undying loyalty to Jesus, but caved in under duress.

 

They were not men short of purpose, passion or heart. They were individuals driven by a cause. Passionate human beings when pride, lust, evil and lack of moral courage got the better of them and brought out the worst in them. Where they saw their hearts and minds in conditions as they really were; abject, puffed up, falling short of the fullness of God.

Some of us have been there, where we look into our hearts and minds and see only darkness. Darkness where only the light of God can shed light on, where it can pierce through and renew.

 

Grieved over their wrongdoings, they threw their wretched self before God. And God healed their brokenness and washed away their shame. He did not just stopped there, He gave them a new heart, calling and identity. Even as remorse engulfed them, and consequences entailed, they found a second chance in life, in relationships in God's forgiving embrace.

When we come to the end of ourselves, God steps in and turns us around.

 

+ + +

 

Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God which He promised before through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures, concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.

Through Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ. Romans 1:1-6 NKJV.

 

+ + +

 

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Psalms 51:11-13. NKJV.

 

+ + +

 

So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, " Feed My Lambs." He said to him again a second time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" He said to Him, "Yes, Lord; You know that I love You." He said to him, "Tend My sheep." He said to him a third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep." John 21:15-17 NKJV.

 

Sv    ".+