April 30
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CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation,
And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.15 O Lord, open my lips,
And my mouth will declare your praise.16 For you will not delight in sacrifice,
Or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart,
O God, you will not despise.18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
Build up the walls of Jerusalem; 19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
In burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
– Psalm 51:10-19
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Matthew Henry comments that those who are thoroughly convinced of their misery and danger by sin, would spare no cost to obtain the remission of it. But as they cannot make satisfaction for sin, so God cannot take any satisfaction in them, otherwise than as expressing love and duty to him. The good work wrought in every true penitent, is a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, and sorrow for sin. It is a heart that is tender, and pliable to God’s word. The broken heart is acceptable to God only through Jesus Christ; there is no true repentance without faith in him.
What is a clean heart? What is a right spirit? The world has a different idea as to what a pure heart is. It thinks that it has to be perfect and without fault which is a lie perpetuated by Satan so that we won’t have that desire to ask God for forgiveness and acknowledge His Spirit for being the One who is solely responsible for such admittance of our sins.
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ADORATION: Praise the Lord for giving His only Son to create a clean heart in us.
CONFESSION: Only the Spirit of the Lord can purify our broken hearts.
THANKSGIVING: Thank you Lord, for the cross that cleanses my sins so I can be reconciled.
SUPPLICATION: May we hear the Spirit’s prodding whenever we have sinned against God.
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REFLECTION
• How is a desire to have a pure heart not a work of ours but of the Spirit of God?