Create In Us a Clean Heart: O Lord Rid Us of Defilement

Each of us are in great need of daily heart renovation - a heart cleansing, Amen? Our hearts become so soiled - so dirty - as we walk through this dusty earth. And oftentimes, in our smug selves, we can become blind and hardened to how dirty. Wrong thoughts and wrong ways creep in and take over and become a new normal to us. And before we even know it, we wonder how in the world we got there. Think King David and Bathsheba. One bad choice after another bad choice after another. We can quickly get into the pig pen fast like the prodigal in Scripture. That is, until he chose to look up.  

Jeremiah writes about our hearts in Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NIV): “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? ‘I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.’” Indeed, Scripture also tells us a deluded heart will mislead us, particularly regarding idols of our own choosing. In Isaiah 44:19-20 (NIV) we find: “No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, ‘Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?’ He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, ‘Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?’” Our bodies can be tempted, our hearts can lead us astray and our minds can be deluded and deceived. Beware. We are to take everything captive and make it obedient to Christ. Take it to His Word and see if it lines up with Scripture as God’s Word is blaringly truthful. Its light exposes our darkness and it is alive and sharper than a double edged sword. That is why it is so greatly important to know its Truth – God’s Truth. We can be so unaware, badly informed or ignorant like Pilate who asked Jesus “what is truth?” while all the while Truth was standing right smack in front of him and he missed it. Jesus was the Word Who became flesh and we do not want to miss Him either.

We are all held accountable for this one life we have been given. I am not accountable for you nor you for me. We all will stand alone before the judgment seat of Christ and ignorance of Truth will not be an excuse. Our daily prayer should be to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and filth and renew a steadfast spirit within us so that we may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord Jesus in all that we say and do and think. “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law,” writes the psalmist. This is to be our prayer. He is more than worth our all.