In computer operation, the shift and delete buttons, when pressed together, enable permanent deletion of a folder or item without sending it to a trash or recycle bin that may allow second thought.
Have you ever thought of your past life and felt like you could press the shift+delete button and let it off your life to never recall of it?
Personally, I have had and I know I still have and will have moments that I will never wish to have a memory of in my life. Moments when I wish all would be erased and rerecorded. Moments of darkness and shame. Yes, moments I would wish nobody knows about. Moments that reflect pain and struggle between right and wrong. When I have no victory over myself. When I have lost hope and forgotten the light that has lead me that far.
But when I sit and consider one man by the name David, I also realize he had his dark moments that he wished he could have a chance to rewrite his past.
Who really was this man David?
Simple history states that, David was a son of Jesse not the eldest but the youngest. He was never raised to be a protector as his elder siblings were but a shepherd. But this gave him enough experience to do what God had purposed him to. I don’t know how it felt to be honored above his elder brothers but I trust it was something to be proud of.
Despite this David lives a life that had a lot of successes and failures. But a good comment is made of him that he was a man after God’s heart, a man who God could count on.
Considering this man’s “shift-delete” moment in Psalms 51.
In case you are not aware of the background to this cry, check it out in the book of 2 Samuel 12
Having been a great friend of God, David understood how much it will cost him to transgress against God. This is why in verse 4 he could openly say that it is against God he had sinned.
Unlike me and you, David knows something, he has no ability to Shift and delete this moment. He claims the promise that God makes that a new hear will He give us and take away our stony hearts, thus pray saying, “Create in me a clean heart, o God and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.”
Wait, do you recall David playing a harp to Saul after the Spirit of God departed from Saul?
David knew exactly what could happen if God decides to cast him out of His presence and withdraw His spirit from him.
To cut the long story short, we are called upon to acknowledge those dark moments of our lives, accept the chastisement therein and from it teach others of how God is merciful if they approach Him with “a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart” which He will not despise for it is His sacrifice. This is the only way we can shift and delete our past dark moments. Not that these moments will leave us but out of them we would have learnt experience on how to overcome they come next.
One thing that gives me hope is that, despite the past God always considers me His child, despite my unworthy, He has bought me with the gold of His son’s blood and the silver of His love. No price has not been paid for such a transgressor as I. How I pray you too come unto realization of this very fact and let not your past define your present or future but it be a caution against making future equal or even comparative errors.
Remember you are precious in His sight.