A Clean Heart, A Renewed Mind

((Early morning thoughts...))


 16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
         You do not delight in burnt offering.
 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
         A broken and a contrite heart— 
         These, O God, You will not despise.  

---Psalm 51:16-17

"Contrite" here, in Hebrew, is "dakah"- to crush. So...a "broken and a crushed heart."

If you claim to be a Christian, but you are no different than what you used to be; still living like everyone else- something may very well be wrong. Calvary- the cross- does not reveal your worth. Rather, it's our depravity. In Psalm 51, King David asked for God to create in him a clean heart. To create a new "leb"- the Hebrew word for "heart". It's the "inner being", the "will".

This Psalm is from when the prophet Nathan confronted King David about David's murdering of Uriah, after lusting for and sleeping with Bathsheba (Uriah's wife). David cries out for a change, a renewal of the depraved and horrible person that he is. Apart from God, our so called "righteousness" is no more "filthy rags". It's in Isaiah 64:6. It's painted in Zechariah 3:1-5.

If your heart has never been broken and crushed for the things of God...are you really a Christian? Or are you one that will stand before God, saying "Lord, Lord"; and the Christ will say "Depart from me...I never knew you"?

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

---Matthew 7:21-23