A Clean Heart

Psalm 51:10 (AMPC)

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, persevering, and steadfast Spirit within me.”

When David penned this psalm, he had done something awful. He had committed adultery, and then he had conspired to commit murder in order to cover it up. He has taken one awful act and compounded it with another and then another until the result was a total destruction of all he had been as a man of God. But David didn’t allow that to be the end of his story. Instead, he turned back to God, acknowledged the wrong he had done and asked for help.

David knew that his heart had become wicked, filled with all manner of thoughts and desires that weren’t in line with who God created him to be. He also knew that he was powerless to do anything about it. He needed help. He needed someone to clean that heart for him and give him the kind of spirit that desired the things that God desired.

What about you?

Are there areas in your life where you can see one bad choice has snowballed into a mountain of bad choices? Are there places in your heart where you feel like you need a fresh start? Where things look so bad that you don’t even know how to begin and you long for someone to come in and do the heavy lifting for you? That’s God’s specialty. He takes hearts in need of cleansing and hearts made of stone, and He transforms them into new, clean hearts of flesh.

The truth is that we can’t change ourselves. We can clean up our behavior for a while, but ultimately, if we don’t address that root cause of sin in our lives, we’ll end up right back where we started or worse. Lasting change has to start on the inside. Lasting change has to come from a change of heart about who we are that then pours out into what we do.

So if you’re in need of a clean heart today, ask God. He’s ready, willing, and able to do the heavy lifting for you and create in you a clean heart and a spirit that seeks His will in all it does.

Prayer: Father, thank you that you are a creator God. That’s who you ARE. You take broken things and restore them. You take a heart of stone and turn it into a heart of flesh. You took David’s sinful heart and gave him a heart that chased after you. Father, in my life right now there are places that need to be cleansed. I need a fresh start with a new heart and a spirit that longs for you and longs to follow your will. Create in ME a clean heart, God. Change me from the inside out so that who I am and what I do fall in line with all you created me to be. You did it for David, and I know you will do it for me, too! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.