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

III. LONG FOR A PURE, CLEAN HEART

As we continue to read the psalms and the accompanying encouraging reflections, let us reflect on our own life journey. Let’s ask ourselves today: “Am I really longing for a pure, clean heart?!? In the days ahead, let us continue to confess to God our weaknesses, our rebelliousness and our guilt. Let’s ask him for forgiveness, and then be ready to receive it. Let us continue to long for God and focus our hearts on him, asking him to remove from us every desire for evil.

Confess Your Weakness

Psalm 6

Without hope and without God, it would seem easy to realize how powerless we are, right? But what about those of us who know God? When everything is good, when the sun is shining, we walk through life with God and often imagine that we are powerful and that we have things “under control”. Then God isn’t as necessary to us as the air we breathe. But, then, when deserts and storms follow, we remember how powerless we are, how nothing is under our control. And just like David, we say: “Be gracious to me O Lord, for I am languishing” (Psalm 6:2)

Why are tears and pain necessary? Why do sunny days repeatedly give us the illusion of power and strength? And, perhaps the most difficult question, why do we freak out and resist deserts and storms when they are, apparently, the most effective way to return to God? Perhaps the answer is very simple - because of something human in us. As people, we often cherish the idea that we can (and should!) do it ourselves, but Jesus calls us to admit our weakness, and understand that He is the source of our strength, power and refreshment. Those don’t come from us, but from Him! When, like David, we find ourselves in anxious situations, this truth gives us comfort and hope.

But let’s not forget that we are equally in need of God, regardless of what our days look like - those behind us or those ahead of us. Acknowledging this necessity does not mean being defeated, but quite the opposite, it means that we have won, together with Him.