In Psalm 51, a prayer of desperation is offered to God, pleading for repentance. One of the most well-known verses in the Bible comes from this chapter, saying, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalms 51:10, NKJV). This sounds like a pretty prayer, and it sounds pleasant to the ear, but what does it mean to ask God to actually purify our hearts? I often hear Christians pray these prayers, such as “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Purify my desires. Purify my thoughts.” This is not a bad thing, so do not misinterpret my mention of this. However, I know there is power in prayer, and your prayers are not menial, whatever they may be about. Praying this prayer is nice until the Lord actually begins the work of purification, which can be quite painful. In the natural, purification of an element such as gold requires burning away the impurities that lie on the surface and molting it into its most pure form. In the spiritual realm, I find that the process is the same. God sees the impurities of our hearts, our spirits, and our thought life, and when we give Him permission, He begins to burn away both the surface level and deep impurities of our hearts. He begins to burn away vanity, selfishness, jealousy, lust, spiritual complacency, anger, etc. Now our flesh, which enjoys dwelling in these impurities, does not enjoy when they begin to be burned away by the holiness of our heavenly Father. But Jesus, in His lovingkindness, gently yet honestly exposes each layer of our imperfect humanness and replaces it with His truth and His beauty.
When we allow the work of the Holy Spirit to burn through our heart and to cleanse it as He sees fit, He sets it on fire for Him. His purification replaces our old desires with His renewed ones. The life we once felt complacent in becomes a life of expectant and radiant joy because He becomes the center around which our lives turn. But what happens if life goes smoothly for a while and those desires try to come back? What about temptation? Five words in response to that: rinse in the word daily. What I mean by this is to read the word of God daily. Devotionals and books on spirituality are beautiful and carry weight, but nothing replaces the word of God. It is alive and it transforms. It is living and breathing because the Word is God, and God is the Word. When we read His Word, we participate in daily communion with Him. Reading His word is like eating a meal with Jesus at any time of the day. How often do we take advantage of communing with Jesus? Jesus, forgive us where we have fallen short in communing with you in the secret place. Forgive us for taking advantage of the holiness of Your word.
After verse 10 in Psalm 51, King David continues on in his prayer of desperation in verses 11 through 13 and says, “Do not cast me away from your presence, And do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.” I never want to live a day void of the Lord’s presence. What a sorrowful and distraught day that would be. Like a gentleman, His presence comes in and rests where it is welcomed and celebrated. My desire in life is to create a life worthy of the habitation of his presence. He has already called you and me worthy of His love on the cross and He has already called us His own, but my desire is to give my thanks right back to Him in the valleys and on the mountain tops. I would take heed praying the prayer of purification in your life. Not because it is a bad thing, but in everything I would say to offer your prayers before the Holy Spirit and pray nothing out of your own physical strength or wisdom. Allow the Holy Spirit to enter inside of your heart as you read this and begin to highlight what needs to be worked on. I would, however take heed to the voice of the Holy Spirit when you feel His tug of conviction on your life. Whether you believe that He is a good Father or not, His truth is unchanging and so is His mercy. He is coming back for a pure church- a pure bride. What can we do to prepare ourselves on this side of heaven to steward purity in our hearts? How can we allow the Lord to create clean hearts inside of us? Surrender is a beautiful first step in the right direction. As I said previously, and as always, bring all your question marks and thoughts before the Lord and process them with Him. He knows our minds and how they work better than we know ourselves, so He is never surprised when we bring what is troubling our hearts the most. Invite the Lord into your heart- into your mind. He wants to make something so beautiful out of your heart and create a garden within where His presence can rest and commune with you.
