Broken Hearts and Restored Joy
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Psalm 51:10-12, 17
In this Psalm we see King David praying a very difficult prayer. He is asking God to break his spirit and cleanse his heart. He is asking God to give him His Spirit instead of his own. David has realized that he does not have the ability to remain steadfast on his own. He asks God to renew a steadfast spirit within him. Oftentimes we get like King David. We think we know how things should be. We allow our pride to take over and we do not trust and follow the ways of our Creator. David felt separated from God because of his sin with Bathsheba. He had given into his own authority instead of God’s and the result was a loss of joy that is from God.
Oftentimes I do not feel as close to God as I had, whether it be because of sin or just the motions of everyday life. I have gotten to the point before where I miss the Joy of my salvation because I become dependent on my own spirit, which is my pride, instead of God’s Spirit. This is the basic form of idolatry and is the exact opposite of what God desires of us.
So what does God desire of us? Verse 17 says it all. He wants us to bring Him our broken parts, not our ritualistic motions. He wants the very core of who we are. He asks us to surrender our spirit and pride to Him and allow Him to replace it with His Holy Spirit that is steadfast and will sustain us and bring us true joy and not just temporary happiness.
The even bigger question is do we know when we are broken? I pray today that we sit back and examine our hearts and look at our motivation today. Is our pride clouding our vision of what God asks of us today? Is our pride blinding us to the joy that God brings because we are unwilling to trust Him? Or have we surrendered our hearts over and asked God to sustain us? Jesus’ words in John 15:5 say that apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Are we just spinning our wheels trusting in ourselves or are we humbling ourselves before Christ and pleading with Him to take over?
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Psalm 51:10-12, 17
In this Psalm we see King David praying a very difficult prayer. He is asking God to break his spirit and cleanse his heart. He is asking God to give him His Spirit instead of his own. David has realized that he does not have the ability to remain steadfast on his own. He asks God to renew a steadfast spirit within him. Oftentimes we get like King David. We think we know how things should be. We allow our pride to take over and we do not trust and follow the ways of our Creator. David felt separated from God because of his sin with Bathsheba. He had given into his own authority instead of God’s and the result was a loss of joy that is from God.
Oftentimes I do not feel as close to God as I had, whether it be because of sin or just the motions of everyday life. I have gotten to the point before where I miss the Joy of my salvation because I become dependent on my own spirit, which is my pride, instead of God’s Spirit. This is the basic form of idolatry and is the exact opposite of what God desires of us.
So what does God desire of us? Verse 17 says it all. He wants us to bring Him our broken parts, not our ritualistic motions. He wants the very core of who we are. He asks us to surrender our spirit and pride to Him and allow Him to replace it with His Holy Spirit that is steadfast and will sustain us and bring us true joy and not just temporary happiness.
The even bigger question is do we know when we are broken? I pray today that we sit back and examine our hearts and look at our motivation today. Is our pride clouding our vision of what God asks of us today? Is our pride blinding us to the joy that God brings because we are unwilling to trust Him? Or have we surrendered our hearts over and asked God to sustain us? Jesus’ words in John 15:5 say that apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Are we just spinning our wheels trusting in ourselves or are we humbling ourselves before Christ and pleading with Him to take over?
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