732 Hebron Road
Heath, OH 43056
Phone: (740) 522-4505
 


Pastor's Nook 

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“Create in me a clean heart o God, and renew a right spirit within me”

 

 -Psalm 51:10


 

 

 

Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me”. -Psalm 51:10
 

I can remember chuckling when my mother asked my brother if he had washed his hands. She always asked us that. What made me chuckle in that instance was that my brother was 35 years old at the time, with children of his own. He rolled his eyes a bit at my mother’s question, but he reassured her that, yes, he had washed his hands. He understood that she was just doing her job. My Sunday School class shared cookies this week. To be sure, before eating those delicious cookies, everyone got a dose of hand sanitizer, just in case. Mom trained me.

What I need more help with is not hand-washing, but heart- cleansing. Precisely the same as what the Psalmist asks: “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” A clean heart and a right spirit are a much tougher challenge. This is why the Psalmist asks for help. This is a prayer. This is my prayer. Is this your prayer?



"
Create in me a clean heart, O God. A clean heart...

one that doesn't judge so quickly;

doesn’t insist on having its own way;

is not encrusted by self-centeredness;

is not bent on blaming the dirt on everyone else;

is not stained by fear.


 

Is there anyone out there reading this column who is praying for a clean heart? Maybe we will pray for one another and for all of us, for clean hearts, renewed spirits, for a grateful acceptance of forgiveness, and a willingness to forgive. Maybe you would pray with me?

Loving Lord God, will you take my heart and cleanse it, and cleanse it your way…inside out, through and through. I know that I need to be willing. I can’t ask you for this and then act as though nothing is going to change. I ask humbly. I am humbly willing to be confronted about the dirt and crust around my own heart-- so I don’t go thinking it is not there. I pray that, with your help, my heart might be changed the way you want, to be more like Christ. I pray that my heart might be pliable to your molding. I pray that my heart might be remade by your love and forgiveness so that I don’t just ask for that for myself, but share it with others.

 

Amen.