Psalms 51:1-2, 10, 16-17
“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. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”
Psalms 51:1-2, 10, 16-17 NIV
All of us are guilty of sin from time to time, and experience separation from God. But how blessed is the one who will confess and repent of their sin and seek restoration, to experience the presence of God and the joy of our salvation. Our sin might bring satisfaction for a period of time. But nothing can compare with the joy that comes from a pure heart and walking with God.
Why does God have to create a clean heart in us? Because it doesn't come naturally. We were not born with a clean heart. The Webster Dictionary's primary definition of the word create reads, to bring into existence. This pure heart was something that did not exist. God must create it, and what's more, He must continually re-create it because we can do nothing to either create it or maintain it in our own power.
All we can do is ask Him for that clean heart. Our need for a clean heart is so undervalued by today's lukewarm Christians. When your heart is pure and known sins are confessed, there are no roadblocks to fellowship with God through His Holy Spirit. You'll be open to His leading and blessing, as well as His hand on your shoulder, stopping you from misplacing your priorities and being deceived by your own heart.
It is only by trusting in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, that we can be reborn as a new-creation in Him, with a clean heart. It is only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and our identification with Him that we can be declared righteous by God and have the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.
Like David our insatiable cry should be, purify my heart O Lord. Cleanse me from my sin. Create in me a clean heart. Restore to me the joy of my salvation and renew a godly spirit within me.
Blessed are the poor in spirit for it is only the heart that is broken before the Lord and truly humbled under a deep conviction of one's own unworthiness before a Holy and Righteous God, that a man or woman of faith can offer to the Lord the sacrifice of a broken heart a living sacrifice, worthy of His acceptance.
It is only the soul who, through the Spirit's convicting work, is deprived of its own self-importance and which is smitten in genuine repentance of sin, that can offer the sacrifice of a broken and contrite spirit, which is so acceptable and pleasing to the heart of God.
Our union with our God can never be broken, but our fellowship with Him and our daily communion can be severed when the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life causes us to stray from the path of righteousness into the destructive dead-end of sin.
It is the sacrifice about which David wrote that returns us into sweet fellowship with our Father in heaven. No amount of outward ritual was going to satisfy God. Instead, it was going to require a change of heart. A heart that was broken over his sin. A heart that was contrite or crushed.
True repentance is more than outward ritual, the offering of an animal. True repentance involves Godly sorrow over your actions. And that is what David realized God wanted from him. We are not under the Law. There is no expectation that we bring a sacrificial animal to the altar when we sin.
May we choose the good and eschew the evil so that our new, born again life in Christ our new nature in Him may be increasingly conformed into the image and likeness of the lovely Lord Jesus until it is no longer we that live, our old sin nature in Adam, but Christ, the new life we have in Him that lives in us ever prompting us towards His likeness!!!
Father thank You for this day and we understand more and more the importance of humility of heart, a contrite spirit, and the need to be broken before You. Lord let Your abundant blessings flow from Your storehouses over my friend and family today. Lord thank You for the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit, and we pray that You would point out all the areas in our lives that grieve You or quench Your ongoing work within. Lord create in us a clean heart we pray, and renew a steadfast spirit within us and may You be seen in us as we submit to Your Spirit's leading and do only those things we hear from You. Lord in this state of humility of our hearts, the beautiful character of You can be formed and developed in us. Lord search us and show us areas where we have not yet submitted to Your leading and guidance, for we desire our lives to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to You. Lord use my friend to share Your gospel to all today. Be a blessing. Love ya
Father, we love you amen !
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