Create in Me a Clean Heart

             Sin!  Whether we care to admit it, sin is something none of us can escape.  From the moment that Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit, we have been plagued by our sinful nature.

            Unfortunately, we often try to minimize our sin by telling ourselves that we are not as bad as the murderer, the rapist, or the “fill in the blank”.  Our society adds to that deception by categorizing crimes.  Felonies are worse than misdemeanors and Class A felonies are worse than Class B felonies, and on it goes.

            The problem is that all God sees is sin!  He doesn’t classify them from 1 to 10, with 1 being the little white lies and 10 being Hitler-like actions.  Sin is Sin!  Here’s the good news!  If we repent, God forgives sin – all of them, and He not only forgives them, but He also forgets them. 

            Recently, I had the opportunity to look closely at the life of David through the eyes of the women in his life.  You’ve probably heard the story of how he seduced Bathsheba while she was still married and then plotted to have her husband killed in battle to conceal her pregnancy.  You may not have heard of how his hunger for power controlled his actions with his first wife, or of his angry tirade when a rancher refused to feed his soldiers.  And then, there’s his daughter who was raped by her half-brother.  Did David go to her aid, to comfort and protect her?  No, but he mourned for his sons when one killed the rapist in revenge. 

            The bottom line is that David was a sinner!  Yet, the Scripture tells us that God considered him “a man after God’s own heart” (I Samuel 13: 14 & Acts 13: 22). My feeble human brain is unable to comprehend how he can be both a murderer and adulterer, among other things and still be a man after God’s heart.  It seems contradictory, and yet it’s true.  How?  Only because David was also a man of repentance and God is a forgiving God.

            After he was confronted with his sin, he not only admitted it, but he also sat down and wrote Psalm 51, a Psalm of repentance.  He well knew how much he needed God’s cleansing.  He freely admitted his sin to the Lord, and he begged God to create in him a clean heart.  He knew that only a broken and contrite heart would free him from the guilt of sin.

            I don’t know what sin(s) you are wrestling with, but trust me, we all have them, and none is greater than any other.  I also know that God not only hears when we come to Him in repentance, but He also forgives us.  I John 1: 9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (NIV84).

            Don’t carry the burden of sin.  Confess it to God.  Ask for forgiveness and ask Him to create in you a clean heart just as David did.  Don’t let the guilt of sin wear you down when God is right there waiting to forgive you.  Just ask!

Psalm 51

I John 1: 8 - 10