When you think back over your life, what marks you? What, in your mind is the headline, front page story that tags and dominates your story.
I’ve thought about the woman at the well, and King David. I wonder if when David looked back over his life did he feel that the Bathsheba failure was the headline that the story of his life was filed under. I decided to see what David had to say about his life in the last things he wrote as an old man. I encourage you to read 2 Sam.23:1-7; Ps.37; and Ps.138. It’s interesting that in none of those last writings of David, the Bathsheba event is ever referred to. Instead he talks about “delighting in the Lord,” and God “reviving” us in the midst of trouble. One of my favorites is Ps.37:12-13a, “The wicked plots against the righteous, and gashes at him with his teeth. THE LORD LAUGHS at him.”
Even though David failed so infamously, he was a lover of God, who had a surrendered and repentant heart, as is recorded in Ps.51. If you are a lover of God who lives with a surrendered heart then THE THING THAT MARKS YOU; THAT WHICH IS THE HEADLINE THAT YOUR STORY IS FILED UNDER, IS YOUR LAST REDEMPTIVE ENCOUNTER WITH GOD. It becomes the story line that defines your whole life going forward.
