Create In Me A Clean Heart

Psalms 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

How does God do this? Is it automatic? The born again man, or spirit man is spotless in the eyes of God, but our outward man has to be renewed, and reprogrammed to think and act like the Word of God says to think and act. God looks at our heart and sees things that no one else sees. He knows what we are thinking and the motives of our heart, and these things do matter to Him. Our motives matter as much as our actions. Many Christians would balk at this, but God’s Word has much to say about our attitude and motives. The condition of our heart has a great deal to do with our faith walk, and whether we produce good or evil.

God knows the beginning from the end and nothing is hidden from Him. I’ve used this Scripture before but I would like to take another look at it.

Psalms 139:1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.

2. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.

3. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.

4. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

5. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me.

6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.

7. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?

He knows why we do the things we do, He knows if we do them for our own motives or if we do them with a proper and upright attitude before Him.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

How does life spring from your heart?

Jesus said this…

Luke 6:45 "A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

What is in our heart will eventually come out of our mouth. What comes out of our mouth will dictate the issues of life. Impure motives will also produce impure words. Impure words are words that spring from impure motives. This is why it is vitally important to keep our hearts. That is where the life is kept. We can’t have a heart full of good and a heart full of evil at the same time. God knows our heart, even if we mess up.

Let’s look at an example of this in God’s Word.

1 Kings 15:11 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David.

12. And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

13. Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron.

14. But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the Lord all his days.

Asa wasn’t perfect, but the word says he was loyal to the Lord all the days of his life. He even went as far as removing His grandmother from being queen. His motives were right, his heart was right before the Lord wasn’t it? We also see that he was compared to David. Did David ever mess up? Yes, but as we just read, Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David. God looks at the inner man not the outer man. We see this in the account of when the Prophet Samuel was sent to Jesse to anoint a new king, and he would have chosen the oldest yet the Lord spoke to him and said…

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’’

Man most often looks at outward things, but God knows the hearts of men and He wants those who have a pure heart and motives.

If our words do not issue from an upright heart, can our faith work?

If our heart is full of evil, can our mouth speak the truth of God’s Word in faith and expect to see results? I don’t think so. This is more than just speaking words, it is speaking words from a heart full of faith, and that can only happen if our heart is right. Wow! Can you see how important this is? This is where the blessings of God are. God saw David’s heart when the prophet Samuel could only see the outward appearance. David was chosen because of this. This same lesson is as vital for us today as it was then. We can work for the Lord, but will we just be working, or will we be walking in God’s blessings. I pray we can grasp the importance of this. You can walk in obedience and still have a bad attitude, and on the other hand, you can even mess up with a good attitude, as we have already seen with King Asa and King David.