“Being a Christian is about a relationship, not religion!” By Tucker Ficklin – Clayton King Ministries
I
thoroughly enjoyed being a sassy, self-righteous seventh grader as I talked to my classmates about Jesus. I had been to a number of Christian youth conferences and had heard Steven Curtis Chapman perform live, so it was obviously my job as the new right-hand of God to inform everyone that it didn’t matter how many times you went to Sunday School last year. I pretty much told my friends that religion was a swear word. Not only could I have been a lot less obnoxious, I could have used a little more knowledge on the importance of obedience and submission to Christ. However, I have to give my obnoxious little seventh-grade self some credit – I was tuning into something that the Holy Spirit has been trying to tell me since I was born: I am all you’ve ever needed, and a relationship with you is exactly what I want. The blood of Jesus proves it.
A Psalm that I have been meditating on lately is Psalm 51. In this piece, we find an imperfect, beat-up David who had just been confronted about his adultery with Bathsheba engaging God in the covenantal relationship that God has always desired with His children. David knows that he screwed up, big-time. The Psalm starts out with David saying, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.”
We see David doing a couple of things here. First, he is confessing his sin to God. He isn’t making excuses, and he isn’t pretending The Psalms have always held We see in Scripture that the only thing we have to do that God has a different a special place in my heart. Not only could I guarantee to enter into this covenantal relationship with the Living set of standards for him, that if I opened my Bible God is to confess our sin and believe that He is Lord. no matter how much he was “after God’s own with my eyes closed I could find the Psalms (again, I was a very obnoxious little Christian), heart”. We see in Scripture that the only thing we have to do but there is something about the way they are written that to enter into this covenantal relationship with the Living God captivated me even as a punk kid. I’ve always loved writing, is to confess our sin and believe that He is Lord. We see David and there was something that resonated with me about David, coming to God as a first-time believer would – as a sinner that Moses, and Solomon crying out to the Lord. There are Psalms desperately needs grace that he doesn’t deserve. for rejoicing, gratitude, and worship, and there are also Psalms that blatantly lay out these writers’ grievances with God. They Second, we see David worshipping God in the midst of His lament openly and ask God hard questions. They doubt God confession. He is acknowledging that God is all-powerful (while without wondering if they will be punished. They talk to God also remaining merciful) by saying that he understands that like someone would talk to an incredibly close friend, spouse, or what he has done was evil and worthy of death. I wish that I family member. They don’t engage God by writing a report card more often invited God into the conversation of my prayers in for Him. They don’t even just perform for His amusement, as if that way. I think that sometimes we forget that God wants to we were created to just be God’s personal American BandStand. play an active role in our lives. He isn’t a professor that is simply They come to God as their authentic, unfiltered, emotional, and grading our papers and keeping tabs on our progress. He is a sin-riddled selves. That is what God wants in a relationship with loving, caring, and all-powerful Father that paid an unthinkable price for us. He did that to grant us full VIP access to Him. We hit us. the jackpot and won the outrageously expensive Harry Styles
Tucker Ficklin is a part of the creative team at Clayton King Ministries. When he’s not designing or doing communications work for the ministry, he is probably reading everything he can get his hands on or looking up flight deals for his next trip. He lives in Anderson, SC. Resources are available to help you in your Christian walk at www.CKMresources.com and you may also visit www.ClaytonKing.com or Tucker has his own website www.tuckerficklin.com
42 GML - May 2021
