A Difficult Prayer

A difficult prayer

“Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.

Scripture tells us in Jeremiah 17:9-10 that the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it.

In Mark 7:20-23, our LORD JESUS tells us clearly “What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.”

The scripture also tells us that before we call, HE shall answer. And this applies in this case. David the writer of Psalms 51:10 precedes Jeremiah and his writings and physically lived before our SAVIOR walked this earth.

This means that the prescription for the terrible predicament our hearts find themselves in was given before the diagnosis.

Beloved, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of GOD. Even in little children and babies, you can witness signs and symptoms of selfishness and other character traits that are basically undesirable. Even us, as evil as we are, we recognize this. Many mothers have complained, albeit lovingly about the merciless kicks and blows meted out on them by babies in their wombs.

As we grow, we note that things get worse. Beloved, we are capable of intense and unbelievable evil. Each of us.

We try and deflate the situation by pointing fingers and saying that the other person is worse than me. "What I did is not that bad if you compare with what he did. "

We ask ourselves, “What got into me that made me do that terrible thing?” What got into him to make him do that unbelievable atrocity?” The truth is all of us have hearts and the bible says that they are extremely wicked.

Remember the famous quote attributed to a now rested saint who saw a man being led to death for his crimes," There but for the grace of GOD go I”. He recognized that the things that we see others do and label them as evil, we are capable of the same as long as our hearts remain in the cold fallen nature.

What is the solution, Beloved? The solution is pray for a new heart. Cry out to The LORD for a new heart. Ask HIM to give you a heart of flesh and not of stone. Ask HIM to write HIS laws upon your heart. Stop wasting time pointing fingers. Remember you stand before your MAKER, YAHWEH, alone and there will be no finger pointing allowed on that day. Yes, Beloved, the blame game shall not be played on that terrible day. Ask Adam and Eve. The blame game gets nobody anywhere.

Beloved, read the entire Psalm 51. Do you think that King David just sat and wrote the Psalm as a by the way, as a means to pass time. It seems to be that he searched for words to describe his horror at the state of his heart and the evil he was capable of. Ogling women bathing. Sleeping with them. Plotting and killing their husbands and bringing the women to his house. Beloved, that’s cold!

But there is the Living GOD, The faithful HOLY SPIRIT, WONDERFUL COUNSELOR gave him words that were appropriate to voice his concern about the deplorable state of his heart. Words that we can use today. Words that we should use today. Words that we can use to cry out to The MOST HIGH, “ Create in me a clean heart O LORD, renew a right spirit within me”

Beloved, you must confront yourself about the state of your heart. After all, it is your heart. When people point out our shortcomings whether real or imagined, we have to check ourselves . What is the state of my heart?

When Prophet Nathan confronted David about his sin, David did not react with self righteousness, he was remorseful, very remorseful and cried out to The LORD for mercy. Of course GOD forgave him, but true to HIS nature, GOD punished David severely, a fact we do not like to remember. Beloved, GOD will punish you for sins you commit. If not, you will be the first to cry that HE is unfair. Rest assured if David was punished, so will you be punished if you let your wicked heart continue to dictate the way you live. You think JESUS dying on the cross was a joke or a story made up by people who were daydreaming. Beloved, GOD is the Righteous Judge. Style up and think properly while there is still time. Cry out to The LORD for a new heart and a right spirit.

Personally, I feel that one of the reasons GOD loved David and favored him and spoke greatly about him being a man after HIS heart is that David acknowledged his sin and fell apart in remorse before The LORD. If it were some of us, the responses would have made the devil blush.. “What was Uriah thinking marrying such a beautiful woman,” “It is Bathsheba’s fault, bathing in the open”. “ She planned and timed it all and brought herself to the king, she came willingly” “ Serves her right for marrying a drunk”, ”David was just being a man” , “ What did you want Bathsheba to do when her husband was away, she has feelings”. ” Bathsheba was destined to be David’s wife anyway”. All these responses are attempts to justify and/or minimize our sin. But not so David. See his response in 2Samuels 12:13.