Overcoming Sin (1 Samuel 25:33)

In this episode of Pray the Word on 1 Samuel 25:33, David Platt discusses the role that community and mercy play in keeping us from temptation.

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Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net. First Samuel chapter twenty five, verse thirty-three. Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you who have kept me this day from blood guilt and from working salvation with my own hand. These words are so important to understand, and they have such important implications for the way we view our lives and the need we all have for people around us who keep us, who protect us in a sense from ourselves. So the whole story here in 1 Samuel 25 is David has been on the run from Saul, who's seeking him out with vengeance, wants to kill him. And David is tempted to give in to the temptation to take things into his own hands. He says at the very end of this verse, you have kept me from working salvation with my own hand, from doing what I should not have done. And he's speaking specifically to Abigail here, who God has provided at just the right time to keep him from sinning, to keep him from giving in to sinful impulses. And I just think about my life. I want to encourage you to think about your life. Left to ourselves, we are prone to sin. Were it not for God's mercy in meeting us and saving us daily from our sin in ourselves, we would be lost. And one of the ways God shows his mercy is by putting people into our path, into our lives who help us see things we may not see, and help us turn from sin in ways we don't always see. We all have blind spots in different ways, and we can all get carried away by temptation. We need people in our lives. This is Matthew 18. Jesus says, I've put you in each other's lives. So when you see one another in sin, Galatians 6, when someone is caught in sin, you have someone who comes to you and pulls you back, or someone who sees you going towards sin and they pull you back in mercy. This is one of the pictures of God's love for us to put people in our lives like this, which we all need. So let's just pray accordingly. God, we thank you for not leaving us alone in our sin. We praise you for pursuing us as sinners and for your mercy to not give us over to ourselves. Even as we think about Romans 1 and the picture of your judgment, giving sinful people over to themselves. God, thank you for your mercy, and we pray that you would keep all of us from sin today and our battles with temptation that each one of us will face. God, we pray that you would help us to be pure and holy and righteous and to walk and step with your spirit according to your word. And we pray that you would surround us with good friends, with brothers and sisters in Christ who will keep us from sin. And we pray that you will help us to humbly listen to them, particularly those closest to us who see our lives up close and personal. God, we pray that you would use them to spur us on toward holiness in you. And we pray that you would use us to Galatians chapter six, gently spur others on to holiness. Help us to keep others from sin. When we see a brother or sister in Christ who's wandering into sin or headed in an unhelpful or unhealthy direction, God, we pray that you would help us to, yes, just as you encourage us, call us to, Jesus, take the log out of our own eye so that we can remove the speck from a brother's eye, sister's eyes, so we can help them turn from sin. Help us to do that compassionately, humbly, gently, wisely. And God, we pray that you would help us to lead those who don't know you from sin to your salvation. God, we pray for boldness to share the gospel with people around us that you would use our lives to keep them from sin and ultimate death. God, we pray for this, for the peoples of the world, for the Kamara people of Ghana, for the small people group, Kamara speaking in Ghana, Africa. Please, God, please cause the good news of your grace to spread among this West African tribe that they might know salvation from sin. We pray all this according to your word in the name of Jesus, who died on the cross and rose from the grave, so that we might have freedom from the penalty and power of sin. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.