To be fully HUMAN — A Daily Reflection

 

 

Create in me a pure heart, O God,
       and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

 

Oh, how precious this prayer is!  "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." 

 

David had sinned in his heart.  He had given in to lust and taken another man’s wife.  He had murdered the other man.  He had become hardened to his sin, hardened in his heart against his own evil conduct.  He knew that the only way he could stay turned away from sin was to have a new heart, a pure desire, a steadfast spirit committed to following God’s laws.  He also knew he was incapable of changing himself.  He knew he was powerless to become a better person on his own.  No self-help program, no group counseling sessions, no psychiatrist or counselor, no amount of personal determination could turn him away from his basic, sinful, fleshly desires.  Only God could do it.  Only God could change him back to the man he should be.  Only God could change David’s "want to’s."

 

You and I are the same as David.  We can spend untold hours and money trying to improve ourselves… trying to change who we are.  We can read hundreds of self-help books.  We can attend countless self-improvement seminars.  We can go through the motions day after day after day of trying to get on the right track all by ourselves.  But we are destined for failure unless we add the key ingredient - God’s power to change our "want to’s."  Only a pure heart and a steadfast spirit can ensure we will stay on the right track, and only God can create in us that pure heart and that steadfast spirit.  On our own, left to our own strength and our own determination, we will fall off the path over and over and over again.  But if we open ourselves to God’s cleansing power… God’s changing power… He can and will mold us into the people He wants us to be.