Lord's Day TWO & The Joy of Your salvation

Continuing my adventure blogging through the Heidelberg... Man, it's been about a month since I wrote regarding Lord's Day 1. However, in the good graces of God Almighty, this particular Lord's Day is extremely pertinent with the rest of His dealing with me lately!
LORD'S DAY TWO
Q3: Where do you learn of your sin and its wretched consequences?
A: From the law of God

Q4: What does the law of God require of us?
A: Christ teaches us this in a summary of Matthew 22:37-40

Q4: Can you keep all of this perfectly?
A: No, for by nature I am prone to hate God and my neighbor.

The first section of the Heidelberg is accurately labeled "The Misery of Man". Question 4 is certainly an accurate depiction of our anthropological nature. We are sinners. We fail considerably at keeping the Law of God.
 I have been studying through the book of Jeremiah, to be continually shocked at what God calls "the stubbornness of their evil hearts". This stubbornness filled them with pride, blinded them from their personal need for repentance and ultimately led to their destruction and subsequent captivities. Perhaps what shocks me more, is how frequently I can identify myself in these same cycles of sin and hatred.
David, the man after God's very own heart that we like to talk about so often, failed so big as a king, spiritual leader, father, etc. And, in the depth of the stubbornness of my own evil heart, I can relate to him as well.

Likewise, on Sunday nights studying through the book of Judges, I cringe at the mention of Samson. Talk about rebellion and pride. How easily I can too be identified with this seemingly giant waste of a judge.
As I've been wrestling through the Word with these admonishments to the misery and consequences of sin and a prayerful heart toward my own failing of God's Law and my lack of- endurance, patience, character, talent- you name it... I could see why David prayed in Psalm 51:12, "Restore me to the joy of Your Salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit."
The JOY of the salvation of the Lord. What a beautiful and sometimes difficult thing to grasp. Sometimes, we can be so remorseful over our sin and have such a weighing guilt that we are imobilized Christians, pitiful Christians, scared Christians. At this some turn away, broken and hurt; others turn to religion and others just continue to fail. There is a real need for the joy of the Lord's salvation in our daily battle with sin.
I recently heard a pastor define joy as "valuing God's grace in each situation." To value the unmerited favor of God. Boy! is that something to be valued. Unearned favor in the sight of our Lord and Creator. How sweet! How sweet to know that our salvation was not based off of an Almighty Creator knowing that eventually at some point we'd chose Him. Salvation is not based off of what I can do for God. It's not based on my talents and abilities, my endurance, patience or morally sound character. Salvation is based off of God's unconditional election and displayed, enacted, brought about by His rich unmerited favor towards us in sending Christ to be born into human flesh, live an impeccable life and die a brutal death so that we might become the righteousness of God. So that regardless of the natural misery of man we have the ability to know Him without fear or guilt! This is the Joy of the Lord's salvation.
Going back to the life of Samson( Judges 13-16), he was chosen by God before his birth. He had a very specific calling from the Lord. He rebelled. He was awful and angry. He was full of pride. God reminded Samson a handful of times of his desperate need for the Lord and yet, God allowed him a daily volition to lameness.God worked in spite of Samson's poor character and bad choices. God sovereignly did as He pleased through the life of Samson. Samson died a vengeful  man, but called out to the Lord with his dying breaths. He made much of the name of the Lord in his death, more than he ever did in his living. He was elected. He was used. He had some sort of faith. but mostly, he had unmerited favor from God.
Samson accrued personal hurt, turmoil and pain on his quality of life, his testimony and his countrymen and completely missed out on a life that enjoys the salvation of the Lord. He missed out on a life that could count for something moment to moment.
May we never live in lameness like Samson. May we experience the favor of the Lord in His willingness to make Himself known and knowable to us. May we be restored to the JOY of the salvation of the Lord in spite of our inherent sinful nature.

Ps. I finished redecorating and organizing my room.. including my curtains and matching pillows :)

That's all.