40 Days of Prayer, Day 12
Day 12, Thursday, September 1
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Psalm 51:10-11
God the Creator and the Re-creator
God is in the creating business. God created the universe. At the end of time God will recreate the heavens and the earth. Between the beginning of the initial creation and the new creation of heaven and earth, God still creates. He creates each person in His image. He also recreates each person that puts their faith in Christ Jesus. He breathes spiritual life into us. He makes us a new creation in Christ Jesus. Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again.” Paul told the church, “Anyone who is in Christ Jesus is a new creation.” What David requested, God has done for anyone who puts their faith in Christ. God, in Christ, continues His incredible creative touch.
The work of God in bringing new life to those who believe in Him comes by the power of the Spirit of God. Even in this Psalm David requested the creative power of God to provide a clean heart. Then, one verse later, David asked God, “Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” David linked the presence of God and the power of God’s Holy Spirit with a renewed spirit and a clean heart. Jesus connected these themes in John 3. In John Chapter 3, Nicodemus, a very religious Jewish man, approached Jesus. “Teacher, we know that You are a teacher sent from God for no one can do the things You do unless God is with Him.” Jesus responded to Nicodemus with some of the themes of David in Psalm 51:10-11. “You must be born again.” The Creator of life must recreate life in us. Just as David needed God to create a clean heart in him, we need God to use His creative power to bring about a second birth in us. The role of the Spirit of God is involved in the rebirth just as David requested the work of the Spirit of God in his clean heart. Later in John 3, Jesus told Nicodemus that the means of the rebirth comes by the work of the Spirit of God. John 3:5-8 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
The necessity of the work of the Spirit
This request by David in Psalm 51 and the statements by Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3 both reflect the necessity of the work of the Spirit of God in our lives. Psalm 51 and John 3 both address the insufficiency of mere external religious life. David was the king of the nation of Israel and a regular participant in its religious life. Nicodemus was a religious leader in Israel, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. In both cases, their own religious efforts were insufficient. David came to that conclusion when confronted with His own sin through the prophet Nathan. Nicodemus was confronted with that reality when the greatest prophet ever, Jesus Christ, challenged him. We cannot achieve a right relationship with God on our own or through religious means. God must do a work in us by the power of His Holy Spirit. We must be born again. God must create in us a clean heart. God, by the power of His Holy Spirit, offers this rebirth, this clean heart, to all who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Prayer Focus
Dear Lord, I know that apart from Your work of rebirth through Your Holy Spirit that I am spiritually and eternally dead. Heavenly Father, I believe that You sent Your Son Jesus Christ into the world. I believe that He lived a perfect life and died on the cross in my place. I believe that three days later He rose again from the dead, conquering sin and death. Nothing good resides in me on my own. Please forgive me of all my sins and come into my life. I receive Your gift of salvation by faith. I receive Jesus Christ as my Savior and I submit to Him as my Lord. Now, dear Lord, as You have given me spiritual life, help me to live for You. I pray all these things in the name of Jesus Christ my Savior, Amen.
From Bunyan's book The Contrite Heart
As God prefers such a heart, and so esteems the man that has it; as he desires his company, has provided for him his gracious encouragement, and given a charge to Christ to heal him, so he has promised in conclusion to save him. 'He save such as be of a contrite spirit, ' or that be 'contrite of spirit' (Psa 34:18). And this is the conclusion of all; for to save a man is the end of all special mercy. 'He saves such as be of a contrite spirit.' To save is to forgive; for without forgiveness of sins we cannot be saved. To save, is to preserve one in this miserable world, and to deliver one from all those devils, temptations, snares, and destructions that would, were we not kept, were we not preserved of God, destroy us body and soul forever. To save, is to bring a man body and soul to glory, and to give him an eternal mansion house in heaven, that he may dwell in the presence of this good God, and the Lord Jesus, and to sing to them the songs of his redemption forever and ever. This it is to be saved; nor can anything less than this complete the salvation of the sinner. Now, this is to be the lot of him that is of a broken heart, and the end that God will make with him that is of a contrite spirit. 'He saves such as be contrite of spirit.' He saves such! This is excellent!