To Encourage You

1 Samuel 26:1-2 “Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, ‘Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hachilah, which is on the east of Jeshimon?’ So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.”

1 Samuel 26:21 “Then Saul said, ‘I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly, and have made a great mistake.’”

Back at the time of vinyl records we used to talk about something called a “broken record.” It was a record with a flaw, e.g., a scratch of some type, and whenever the needle on the record player reached that point it would begin to play the same part of the record over and over again.  Related to this is the saying, “He sounds like a broken record.” It refers to someone that tends to say the same things every time you see them. 

So, is your life like that?  Is there something in your life, some flaw, some besetting sin, that you just can’t seem to shake. You feel sad or ashamed when you do it, but you always find yourself falling into the same pattern over and over again.  It could be pornography or some other sexual sin. Perhaps it’s a tendency to curse although you really don’t want to.  Maybe it’s a way of behaving toward your children that is hurtful to them such as the use of angry or critical words.  However, try as you might, your life is like a broken record and it just keeps happening to you over and over again.

In the passages above we have an example of this from the life of Saul.  Over and over again Saul found himself in fits of jealousy and hatred towards David.  Time after time, David eluded him. Several times, such as in the case above, when David could have put Saul to death, he didn’t.  Then when Saul finally realized the evil he had done, he was sorry, confessed that what he had done was wrong, and gave up the chase – only to do it all over again later. 

The whole nation of Israel was like this all through their journeys in the wilderness and then in the time of their kings.  As you read through the Old Testament, you see this pattern played out like a broken record: Israel sins, the Lord punishes them in some way, the nation mourns for its sin and turns back to God for a while, but then repeats the same cycle over and over again.  It makes you wonder why they never changed. Why didn’t Saul ever change? And if we are honest, why don’t we change? 

At the heart of this broken record syndrome is a flaw in our character.  But it’s not just a sin problem. It’s a love problem.  The reason Saul found it so difficult to change was that he loved himself more than he loved God.  When push came to shove, he continually did the thing that appealed to his flesh at the time, rather than to the thing that glorified God.  And because he never did really love God, his sin problem continued until the end of his life. 

The issue with this “broken record syndrome,” isn’t just that we are flawed and sinful (for we all are), but how we see that sin and what we do about it after we fail.  Saul was sorry for his sin. It made him feel bad.  But because he had no love for God, he didn’t see his sins as affecting anyone but himself and perhaps the person he sinned against.  Contrast that with David, who was known as a man after God’s own heart.  He sinned grievously in his life.  The most well-known sin was his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and his murder of Bathsheba’s husband in order to cover the sin up.  But then the prophet Nathan confronted David and he was cut to the heart. Listen to David’s prayer of confession which is recorded for us in Psalm 51:

“Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
    blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
    and cleanse me from my sin!

“For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
    and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
    and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
    and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
    wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
    and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

You see, David, despite his flaws, really did love God. He came to realize that when he sinned, first and foremost, it grieved the heart of God.  And he repented, i.e., turned around and went the other direction with a heart to love God rather than to please only himself.  And so it is with each and every one of us. Jesus told us “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Therefore, if we do really love Him, whenever that temptation comes to look at something we should not look at, or say something we know would grieve His heart, we’ll think again and choose that action that is an act of love toward Him.  That’s why, elsewhere, Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40). Similarly, in Romans 13:8-10 we are told, “The one who loves another has fulfilled the law.For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,’ and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” 

It’s all a matter of love, this broken record syndrome.  And you can’t fix it on your own, for no record ever fixed itself.  If you love yourself more than anything else, you’ll never do anything different, for it’s that love that will dictate your life. You see, we all need a new record, a new heart, a heart that loves the Lord above all else. That’s the message of Paul to us in Romans 5:14-17, where he says, “for the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 

So, is your life like a broken record?  Then go to the One Who made you and ask for a new one, a new heart, that is, a heart that burns with a love for Christ.