Affairs of The Heart

Ps. 51:¹⁰ “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.”

King David was supposed to have gone to the battleground but instead he stayed back. One evening while taking a stroll on his roof, he saw a lady [Bathsheba] having her bath.

  David slept with Bathsheba, another man’s wife and attempted to cover it up. It is bad enough that you had done something wrong but when you try to cover up, you just mess things up further.Nathan confronted David, reminding him of how he took him from obscurity and made him a king. And see how you have responded to God’s kindness. David was broken and wrote the famous Psalm 51, “have mercy upon me oh God according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions”

Ps. 51:¹⁰ “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me” [with emphasis]. What David was saying in essence was, “Lord remove not only my sins but renew the heart that made me do it in the first place.” David knew that it is not just about forgiveness.  If it was just about forgiveness, Psalm 51 would have ended in verse one but it did not. David went on to address the source of the problem. Forgive me and change my heart Lord or it would not take long before I go back to sinning against you.

David was saying, Lord I know that You will forgive my sins but also give me a new heart – create in me a new heart. When there is forgiveness of sin without a change of heart, you have repetition of sin and that is a problem. A lot of people come to Church seeking forgiveness but not many people really want a change of heart. Do you know why? They still want to go back to “Bathsheba” but have the Blood of Jesus as a talisman.

What do you want really? Do you want forgiveness alone or you want a change of heart with it? Do you want only the symptoms to be sorted out or do you want the whole package that deals with the disease? What do you want really? When you start confronting the symptoms, you start wrestling at a deep level, you will see a total change in your life.

Prayer: Father, I do not just want to take medicine for the symptoms, I come to You the Great Physician to heal the disease, create in me a new heart, in Jesus Name. Amen!