August 14, 2007 - Fresh Heart, Fresh Start

[Durruck]

Fresh Heart, Fresh Start
By Jon Walker

“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalms 51:10 NIV)

God creates my pure heart, not me. It is his spirit within me that cleanses and “re-creates” my heart. It is his power, his grace, his hand, his works, his abilities, his strength that creates this pure heart. My heart becomes pure not because of what I can do, but because of what God has done through the blood of Jesus Christ – and what God can do in transforming my heart into what he wants it to be.

God speaks my pure heart into existence; this is a Genesis moment, where God speaks into the chaos, the darkness, the void, and from this creates a pure heart within me (Psalm 51 MSG). God can create something from nothing; he can take a heart that is broken, impure, failed and create in its place a heart that is whole, pure, and purposeful.

God loves me and wants to pour his grace into my heart. He wants to see me pure, and he wants to see me succeed – so much so, that he takes an active role in creating my new, cleansed heart. My role – my job – is to submit, humble myself before him, ask for his help.

Think like this: God is the one who purifies my heart. My heart is not purified by me, by my noble efforts, by my good thoughts, by my ability to follow the rules. Rather –

· My heart is purified by God creating a pure heart within me.

· My heart is cleansed by the living water flowing through me.

· My heart is cleansed by the blood of Christ scrubbing away the stains of my sin.

· My heart is cleansed by God breathing his spirit into me.

· My heart is purified solely, and wholly, by the power of God – and not by anything extra that I can do.

That is why the only path to a pure heart is to confess my sin and acknowledge my need.

The heart God creates, then, is no longer cynical or distrustful. It is no longer damaged or broken. It is a pure heart.

So what?

· A pure heart produces faith – “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.’” (Mark 11:23)

· A pure heart matches God’s heart – Syncing with God’s heartbeat means you focus your heart on those things that matter most to God (Colossians 3:1-2) and you let go of anything that hinders your ability to align with God's heart (Hebrews 12:1). Jesus matched his heart with the Father's heart (John 5:23; 6:38; 16:17-18).

· A pure heart is undivided – God wants your whole heart committed wholly to him: “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (Mark 12:33)

· A pure heart is a fresh start – Ask God to create in you a fresh start. (Psalm 51:10 MSG).

© 2007 Jon Walker. All rights reserved.


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[Durruck]

I'd like to expand on today's devotional just a bit. I understand that it's all about God and what He thinks about us. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. We are transformed, purified by our faith in Christ. We are called to live our lives differently. We are renewed and our hearts given a fresh start through God.

Unfortunately, the rest of the world may not see us the same way. The New Testament even tells us that people were leery of trusting Paul. Just months before, he was persecuting Christ's followers and putting them to death. Now he's here, preaching about Him?

We'll face quite similar challenges when we give our lives to Christ. We've still got to deal with our family, our friends, our co-workers that don't believe what we believe. They don't understand that we've been set free from our pasts. They still know us as the drunkards, the liars, the cheaters, the blasphemers. In essence, they still remember our sins. The devil will try to remind us of our past at every turn - this is how he tries to shake our faith.

There's a country song that I remember hearing years ago that said this:

Jesus may forgive, but a daddy don't forget

How true that is. Everything we've ever done will come back to haunt us in the end, even if Jesus has already taken it away. The devil doesn't want to us let go of the past. But we must remain strong by relying on God to turn us away from the lies, to keep the living water flowing strongly through us via the Holy Spirit. When you pray about today's lesson, don't forget to pray that God will purify your heart, but also to rebuild it stronger than before through Jesus, so that you will be able to stand up to the hate of the world.