When I have finished reading a chapter of Scripture, when I have read my Devotionals, when I have been still with God in prayer and communion with Him, there is so much! How do I share so much in one blog? I ask Him to help me share His love. He asks me to be still with Him and in stillness with Him I am Home. Home with Him is where the truth of His love dwells richly. And I pray for Him to draw those I love, to draw every heart to Him that all may know this love that surpasses understanding. We live and have our being only because He created.

There is a show on Prime my husband and I enjoy that was made around 2009 called Sea Patrol and takes place in Australia. We cringe every time they come to a boat or ship because we know there will be truly awful people on that boat and sure enough, aboard are pirates, human traffickers, drug runners, insurgents, people whose lives are dedicated to harming others for whatever they count as gain. But what do they gain? Darkness. I can tell myself it’s just a show but even today pirates are real; human traffickers are real; drug runners are real; insurgents are real; the devastation and harm, the darkness they cause is real. Let God in.

In this final chapter of this book, 2 Samuel 24, the very first verse: Again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go and take a census of Israel and Judah.” Have you ever done something and then immediately regretted doing it? I have. At the end of the nine months and twenty days it took for Joab and the army commanders to go throughout Israel counting the fighting men, David was conscience-stricken. v. 10. What did David do? And he said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” He went to God. Always.

In the commentary below: Did God cause David to sin? God does not cause people to sin, but he does allow sinners to reveal the sinfulness of their hearts by their actions. God presented the opportunity to David in order to deal with a disastrous national tendency, and he wanted this desire to show itself…David’s sin was pride and ambition in counting the people so that he could glory in the size of his nation and army, its power and defenses. By doing this, he put his faith in the size of his army rather than in God’s ability to protect them regardless of their number.

God gave David 3 options to atone for Israel and for himself: 3 years of famine, 3 months of fleeing from your enemies, 3 days of plague. David chose God. “I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is great; but do not let me fall into human hands.” v. 14. The Lord is merciful…humans are not. Let God in.

So the Lord sent a plague on Israel from that morning until the end of the time designated, and seventy thousand of the people from Dan to Beersheba died. When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. v. 15-16.

David saw the angel of the Lord, v. 17. David bought the threshing floor of Araunah and all the provisions needed so he could offer burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord, and the plague stopped, v. 18-25.

David trusted God. He let God in. He knew where his true Home was and his Home is God. Was David perfect? No. Did God ever stop loving David? No. When David sinned he turned to God because in God he knew forgiveness and help and most of all God’s unfailing love lifting David back to God’s Presence and truth. God’s love turns away the darkness and darkness flees. You and I can trust God for every sin we have committed and ever will commit because He alone can banish that darkness with the blazing light of His love. There is no room for darkness in blazing light. Our Creator God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24, Hebrews 12:29) whose Light of pure Love consumes and banishes sin. And then? “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34.

That is then and God speed that day for all of us and not just Israel. Today…Let God in. Begin a relationship with Him, our Creator, and walk with Him leading you to His love and His Truth. It takes time. Our minds cannot conceive such immense Love all at once. Be still with Him and let His love for you in. Day by day, thought by thought, experience by experience know God. He’s here. He is patiently working in your life.