Seize the Moment – Day 917
Trust God with your Worst Decisions!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, September 20.
Did you know that God can redeem your worst decisions and most painful moments?
In 1 Chronicles 21, David made a bad decision by ordering a census (1-2). Regardless of what motivated him to make this decision,[1] he did so against the counsel of his trusted general (3-4). God’s judgment was swift, leading to the deaths of 70,000 men by pestilence (14). In verses 15-17, David and the elders cried out to God for mercy as “the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite” (15).
In verse 18, God, in His mercy, provided a way out, “Then the angel of the Lord commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up and build an altar to the Lord on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” Very interestingly, the location of David’s altar became the future location of Solomon’s temple. As 2 Chronicles 3:1 reminds the people of this at the time of the building of the temple, “Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” God chose the location for the temple in a place to remind His people of both His judgment and His mercy!
God loves to redeem our worst decisions and our most painful moments to bring about a redemptive purpose for that event that will bless us and others. The key is to follow David’s example, not in making a bad decision, you don’t need encouragement to do that, but in crying out to God for mercy once you realize you’ve made one.
God bless you!
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YOUTUBE:
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] When you compare 1 Chronicles 21:1-2 with its parallel account in 2 Samuel 24:1-2, they are nearly identical historical accounts minus one key point – the responsible party for motivating David to take the census. In the older account of 2 Samuel 24:1, it says, “Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David …”; whereas 1 Chronicles 21:1 states, “Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.”