A Clean Heart
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me”
These words rang in the back of my mind when I watched the Memorial Service for Charlie Kirk this past Sunday. There is a renewed passion arising in many, to take God more seriously than they have before. As a pastor in a local community that is very encouraging to see and be a part of, as it is the goal of every sermon and teaching we have preached and taught for years.
But in those words that King David wrote nearly three thousand years ago, a timeless truth rings true today as it did back then. In Psalm 51, David’s famous psalm of repentance, he writes the following words:
“10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (vs.10-12 ESV)
Notice how he started out, with the outcry of his heart, saying “Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me”. David struggled in his everyday life as he fell into sin, but what ached him more than any punishment, was that he felt his heart towards God had changed, and that the spirit he once possessed as a young passionate youth that made him stand up to a Goliath when everyone else shrank back, has become a distant memory of the past. Because now, he stayed home from battle while his subjects fought the battles for him. Not only did he stay home from what he once fought so passionately himself, but he also became complacent and allowed it to lead him into sin. A lot has changed since then, and David noticed that things are no longer the same. This awareness brought him to his knees with a deep outcry to God, that He would restore his heart and spirit again. Because one of the natural consequences was, that David felt distant to God, which we see in his next words as he wrote: “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” David feared that distance to God as of late and that disconnect in his spirit. More even, he felt the joy of God’s salvation missing in his life, and that his heart no longer desired to put God first.
It is a condition in which we all find ourselves throughout the course of our lives. Perhaps because of times of busyness, or changes of life circumstances, or simply because we have grown complacent over time. But the solution is still the same as it was back then - repentance. Oh, that sweet place, when we get to bring our lives before the Lord and ask him to restore us to a right standing with Him, and to fan into flame again the first love we once possessed, perhaps even to a more mature one than back then. We see this in the lives of many in our nation right now, and I want to encourage those that find themselves in a place like this lately. Give it to the Lord once more, and allow Him to touch your life again and truly make you whole again.
These words rang in the back of my mind when I watched the Memorial Service for Charlie Kirk this past Sunday. There is a renewed passion arising in many, to take God more seriously than they have before. As a pastor in a local community that is very encouraging to see and be a part of, as it is the goal of every sermon and teaching we have preached and taught for years.
But in those words that King David wrote nearly three thousand years ago, a timeless truth rings true today as it did back then. In Psalm 51, David’s famous psalm of repentance, he writes the following words:
“10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.” (vs.10-12 ESV)
Notice how he started out, with the outcry of his heart, saying “Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me”. David struggled in his everyday life as he fell into sin, but what ached him more than any punishment, was that he felt his heart towards God had changed, and that the spirit he once possessed as a young passionate youth that made him stand up to a Goliath when everyone else shrank back, has become a distant memory of the past. Because now, he stayed home from battle while his subjects fought the battles for him. Not only did he stay home from what he once fought so passionately himself, but he also became complacent and allowed it to lead him into sin. A lot has changed since then, and David noticed that things are no longer the same. This awareness brought him to his knees with a deep outcry to God, that He would restore his heart and spirit again. Because one of the natural consequences was, that David felt distant to God, which we see in his next words as he wrote: “Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” David feared that distance to God as of late and that disconnect in his spirit. More even, he felt the joy of God’s salvation missing in his life, and that his heart no longer desired to put God first.
It is a condition in which we all find ourselves throughout the course of our lives. Perhaps because of times of busyness, or changes of life circumstances, or simply because we have grown complacent over time. But the solution is still the same as it was back then - repentance. Oh, that sweet place, when we get to bring our lives before the Lord and ask him to restore us to a right standing with Him, and to fan into flame again the first love we once possessed, perhaps even to a more mature one than back then. We see this in the lives of many in our nation right now, and I want to encourage those that find themselves in a place like this lately. Give it to the Lord once more, and allow Him to touch your life again and truly make you whole again.
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