Psalm 37:5, 6 
Commit everything you do to the LORD. 
Trust him, and he will help you. 
He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn, 
and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. (NLT)

Open up before GOD, keep nothing back; 
he’ll do whatever needs to be done: 
He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day 
and stamp you with approval at high noon. (MSG)

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Sometimes it’s hard to tell ourselves the truth about ourselves.

Sometimes it’s hard to admit the deep darkness within our hearts. 

What’s hard is admitting we have been, and can still be, that bad.

What’s hard is asking God for forgiveness (again) for problems we should have dealt with long ago. 

This psalm is so powerful because it declares that God is more interested in empowering us to begin again more intelligently, more wholeheartedly, than in punishing us. He wants the blessings he pours into our lives to overflow into the lives of others. He wants to demonstrate his forgiving, healing, restoring grace in our lives as a display others can see and desire for themselves.

Healing, forgiving grace arrives when we get honest with God. We tell him the truth about ourselves. We agree with him regarding our rebellion. We turn away from those things that create distance between our hearts and his. 

What we are incapable of doing in our battle against our own badness, he does for us. What he does in us is complete. It meets his own standards. His stamp of approval marks us now and forever. 

I wonder why you need to hear this today. I know why I need it. The good news for both of us is that we can live new lives and stay close to our Father in Heaven because of what he has done for us. We can live in peace. We can live with purpose. We can become who we were meant to be instead of who we were becoming by our own bad choices. 

Can God really be that good? Yes, and so much more. 

Trust him, and he will help you.

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I will trust God to do for me what I cannot do for myself.

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Our Father, I’m pretty sure I’m a dirty, rotten scoundrel. How in the world could you love someone like me? How in the world could you forgive someone like me? Thank you for loving and forgiving the worst in me and bringing out the best. You are better than I have imagined or could conceive. Your kindness draws me back where I need to be. Thank you. Amen.