Matters of the Heart
Matters of the Heart
Sin is a heart condition. It is a condition of rebellion against God. Our actions, though they may be “sinful” are the fruit of our rebellion against God. Jesus teaches us that adultery and murder begin in the heart. Like a drop of strong deadly poison in a bowl of soup, the smallest sin can poison the whole heart. Only God can create a clean heart. The Living Bible says, “Create in me a new, clean heart, O God, filled with clean thoughts and right desires.”
The psalmist is no longer simply praying for continued forgiveness, but for a radical change in who he is. David did not say that he would try to change with all his strength. The change in him could only be by God. Let thy power be seen in a new creation. He wants his carnal love to be changed to spiritual love. Who was to do this work? The “old man” must die (be put off), and the “new man” put on, created in Christ Jesus. One has to give his will, emotions and mind to God. Only God can set one free from the grip of sin. Some people like to sin so much that they really do not want to change. The change God asks of us has to do with trusting God. Some people just ask God for forgiveness, and go back and commit the same sin again. One can get caught in a cycle. Freedom comes only from finding the answers from God. Only when one dies to the old life does one find the new life in Christ. Steve Zeisler says that we usually think of the heart as the seat of emotions. But David is really praying for a clean mind. To pray for a clean mind is to call for the cleaning out of the memories of abuse, self pity, lust, hurts, failures. A clean mind is a new capacity to think, see, react, and judge, not the old one that’s covered with muck from the past. Once something has become a habit its difficult to stop. David is praying for a steadfast spirit that can be strong enough so that the old, bad habits don’t have command anymore.
A right spirit means a steadfast spirit. David is asking for a mind that will follow the right path. He does not want the path of destruction. David wants a personal relationship with God like he had before sin came between them. David shows his love for God through sincere repentance and wanting to walk the path of truth with a clean heart. David is a man after God’s own heart.
Psalm 51: 17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
How serious do you think sin is? Jesus had to take our sin on Him to save us.
Man is lost without Jesus. No amount of trying to find yourself will do. No matter how good man tries to make of himself, the final results misses the mark. Mankind needs God’s transforming ability that can turn a worm into a butterfly. Like the seed that has to die first in order to come to life, we have to come to God with a broken spirit.
The old pot needs to be broken into pieces and then the new pot is made. We can have the very presence of God recreating us and transforming us from what we are into what we can be by grace. It means we can have the living breath of God (Holy Spirit) within us giving us new life and enabling us to do what we cannot do on our own.
