A Clean Heart And Steadfast Spirit

-February 4, 2023-

Good morning, happy Saturday,

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

(Psalm 51:10).

David sinned with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of David’s loyal servants and soldiers. God saw the whole sordid affair and was was greatly displeased. God worked in David’s life to bring him to repentance, confession, and restoration. When we sin it is the same. God wants to forgive us and create a clean heart in us and renew a steadfast spirit.

God wants to forgive us and cleanse us. There are two types of forgiveness: judicial, where God forgives us the moment we receive Christ as Lord and Savior. Christ paid our sin debt on the cross. God accepted His perfect sacrifice by laying our sins on His Son. Jesus took our punishment upon Himself. There is no more condemnation for us who are in Christ Jesus. He pardoned us and the case is closed. The second type of forgiveness is parental. When we sin now as a believer, we must confess it, repent, and ask for forgiveness. All our sins are forgiven at Calvary. Now when we confess our sins, God’s forgives us a Father and restores our fellowship. The severed lines of communication are restored.

David prayed for a clean heart and steadfast spirit. Bill MacDonald in His Believers Bible Commentary wrote on this verse as David may have explained it in his own words, “Looking back, I realize that the trouble all started in my mind. My thought-life was polluted. I entertained evil thoughts until at last I committed the sins. So now I ask You to create in me a clean mind. I know that if that fountain is clean, the steam flowing from it will be clean as well. Yes, Lord, renew my entire inner self so it will be steadfast in guarding against future outbreaks of sin.” God wants our hearts and minds to be clean.

Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount said, “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness” (Matthew 6:22-23)! The word good means clear or healthy; and the word bad means evil or unhealthy.

No believer who sins will lose his salvation but the fellowship with the Lord can be cut off and it needs to be restored. May God help us to confess our sins immediately and get right with the Lord. God gives us a clean heart and a new start. Have a blessed day. Stay safe and healthy.

Walking in the light of God’s Word,

Dean