“I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O LORD, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” 2 Samuel 24:10

We don’t know precisely what David had done wrong in taking a census. Scholars debate it even to this day. Even his military commander, Joab, questioned the action before David carried it out. In the end, after David had confessed, a three-day pestilence took the lives of 70,000 of David’s men (2 Samuel 24:15). David knew it was a sin and did it anyhow. It seems drastic and harsh to us, but God obviously hates sin that much.

David, though, continued to be a man after God’s own heart. He sinned greatly but he seemed to always come back to the fold, and God restored him greatly. It really is a picture of our life we have in Christ.

We sin; we grieve; we confess; we’re restored, and the cycle continues. Hopefully along the way we are learning to trust Jesus more. As our walk with Christ matures, we’ll face different battles and temptations that we didn’t have to face ten or twenty years earlier. After we “master” those challenges, we’re faced with newer ones. All in all, what we face in this life helps us to depend on Christ’s strength and not our own.

We are not alone in the Journey, for Christ goes with us.