Create in Me a Clean Heart: The 40-Day Challenge (Psalms)Sample

I. GLORIFY THE GREATNESS OF GOD

Psalms have always been an important part of worship, and they were mostly sung. Even today, many contemporary Christian authors turn to the psalms as a source of inspiration. The book of Psalms is full of extraordinary songs that vividly speak of God’s greatness. And everything we learn about God encourages us to praise. For the next six days, we will reflect on what our God is like and what that means for our daily life. No one is equal to God, at his word the heavens were created. God rules over all - he is greater than all gods. God’s understanding is beyond measure, he is our refuge and strength.

Longing for a Pure, Clean Heart

Psalm 51

In moments when we are speechless before God, when we do not know how or what to pray, we can find in the Book of Psalms examples of how to approach God - openly, honestly and without hesitation. Created in real life circumstances, written as prayers and songs, the Psalms reflect the real emotions of real people, - imperfect people like us. That is why the Psalms are so relatable and understandable to us.

Many of the Psalms were written by King David, a man whose life was full of ups and downs, but a man who kept returning to God. David was capable of such obvious and terrible sin, but he also knew how to deeply and sincerely repent by confessing his sin. He knew how to ask for God’s mercy, to beg desperately for forgiveness, to cry out for purification and justification. David never gave up on staying close to God no matter what, believing that God could create a pure, clean heart in him. David sincerely longed for God and his wisdom that would strengthen him in his daily life and that would turn him away from the wrong paths. David knew how to enthusiastically praise God and to steadfastly thank him.

However, many people run away from God and hide from him precisely in those moments when they need him the most. Shame, due to one’s own sinfulness and inability to change much with one’s own efforts, distances a person from God. It is not easy to admit your weakness and your sin. It’s not easy to ask for forgiveness, it’s not easy to ask for mercy, and it’s even harder when you have to do it over and over again. The problem is even bigger because we humans assign ourselves the main role in the process of change, while God has a completely different plan. God is the one who forgives and restores, and through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God opens for us the surest way to real change and the way to a pure, clean heart.

At the beginning of that journey, a person must recognize God’s greatness in relation to their own unworthiness. It is necessary to admit one’s sin and one’s weaknesses, it is important to repent and to pray for forgiveness. But it is also important to humbly accept the forgiveness which is offered, and then to joyfully experience the healing redemption and deliverance. It is important to immerse yourself in the wisdom of God, which alone brings stability to human life. Finally, it is important to persist in glorifying God and giving thanks for all that He has done.

We invite you to spend the next forty days with us in the book of Psalms, which opens up these very topics, encourages reflection, prayer and song, and above all, fuels the longing for God, the creator and giver of a pure, clean heart.

“Create in me a clean heart, Oh God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”

Psalm 51:10-12 (ESV)