Regaining the Victory
Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the people of Ammon, and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David, and said, “I have fought against Rabbah, and I have taken the city’s water supply. Now therefore, gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it, lest I take the city and it be called after my name.” So David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah, fought against it, and took it. - 2 Samuel 12:26-29
Notice how beautiful this is: David experienced victory once again. His sin was forgiven and God had promoted him over his enemies. He moved forward and was no longer placed on the shelf. His life had gone from darkness back to the light. David’s righteous life was recorded in Scripture: David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite - (1 Kings 15:5).
Our righteousness is from Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30). We must learn from our failures; do not dwell on them, just move forward. God often uses our mistakes to strip us of ourselves. When we are humble before Him, He can work in our lives and through our lives. Paul had the right attitude in Philippians 3:12-14:
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
God assures us of a future that is better than all our past.
~J. Charles Stern~
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