AM I CLEAN YET?

Jun 7, 2022
2 min read

Lord, I don’t know why I do some of the things I do. I don’t want to do them, but I can tell that they come from an unclean heart. Please clean my heart, Lord, so I can serve You!

Psalm 51: 5-9 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

I need to remember that all humans are born with a sin nature and a propensity to sin.

King David clearly defines that life begins before birth: in the secret place of the womb, God taught me wisdom. What wisdom could I learn there? God desired faithfulness even in the womb. Where does faithfulness come from? It’s a fruit of the Spirit. Even before I had the chance to commit my first sin, God was nurturing me with His Spirit.

David also feels humility and begs God to cleanse him and wash him. David acknowledges God’s power in this process: if God cleans me, I will be whiter than snow.

A cleansed heart is a joyful heart: let me hear joy and gladness. Cleansing is a painful process in which God clears my heart of sinful desires and replaces them with a desire for Him. Giving up my desires is compared to the pain of crushed bones. Yet my crushed bones will rejoice when my heart is cleansed.

THINK ABOUT THESE THINGS: Since God’s Word tells me that cleansing is the key to joy and gladness, this should be the main prayer request for myself. The faithfulness that God requires is my continual looking to Him in confession of my sins and asking Him to fill me with the fruit of the Spirit.

I can’t help but think that if God is speaking these words to me, He must be working similarly in the hearts of the people around me. The same people that I get anxious or angry with perhaps are experiencing similar emotions to what I’m feeling today. That alone calms my heart as I ask the Lord to wash it clean so that He has all the room He needs to work in my heart.

Lord, I so desire to feel Your joy and gladness in my heart. I desire to surrender my heart to You, so that all of my selfish desires are washed away, and my heart is filled with Your everlasting, ever-reaching, all-encompassing love.