WE NEED YOU EVERY HOUR
Psalm 51:10-12 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
In a way it is funny, but good that most of all that we are and ever will be is dependent on the Lord. This is not to say that we are predestined in our relationship with God to the point that we have no free will. It does mean that in ourselves we are almost like babies and incapable to become or achieve all God would have us be by our own efforts. We would like to think, and most actually try to come to spiritual maturity and Christ-like perfection on our own. It’s like our children that continually tell us, “I can do it!”, when we know they can’t or will only will mess it up. At first we insist on doing it whether it is feeding them or tying their shoes, but then we get tired of the fight and let them have their will. It is the same with us and the Lord. We come to the altar and cry out to the Heavenly Father telling him we are sorry for our sinfulness and we want to him to forgive us because of Jesus’ love and atonement for us. Then we get up from the altar and go back to sit in our pew and sware we will do better and never sin again. But we sin again and again and again, each time heaping more guilt on ourselves and beating ourselves up day after day.
In Genesis 32: 22-32 it tells us how Jacob wrestled with God all night, then finally at daybreak God asked Jacob to let him go. Now, you may be thinking, “How could Jacob wrestle with God let alone win?” It’s not hard! Haven’t you ever struggled with doing God’s will, and didn’t he let you overcome? This is why God changed his name of Jacob meaning deceiver to Israel meaning he struggles with God. And to this very day the nation of Israel still struggles with God as they continue to reject their Messiah, God’s only begotten Son. God is letting them win just as he lets us win, but they nor we will ever be happy and have peace until they surrender and submit to God’s will! We can either do it God’s way or the wrong way.
That pretty well sums up things for all areas of our life. The problem is it seems we, nor the world ever seems to either learn this or want to do it. This includes Christians and even pastors! So where does this bring us regarding today’s passage? Well, David has given us a very important list of things we can do to avoid a huge amount of spiritual problems in our relationship with the Lord. They are: have a pure heart, a steadfast spirit, staying in the presence of the Lord, keeping the Holy Spirit, having the joy of our salvation and a willing spirit to sustain us. I would think you would agree that all these things would be good to have in our relationship with the Lord. So, why do we struggle so much to obtain them or maybe not even seek them at all? The reason is we are stupid, because we can’t have them by our own efforts! It is a must we have them all and only God can help us have them, but God respects our free will. We have not because we ask not. (James 4:2) We must ask for them, seeking them with all our heart until we get them. This is not wrong to do, because God wants us to have them! And because he wants us to have them, it is a sin for us not to passionately want them. Sin is also not doing what God wants us to do.
What is this pure heart within us? I believe it to be an undivided heart towards God. It is a heart passionately dedicated to him and in love with him. It is a heart cleans of our carnal nature and seeks his will for our life and our relationship with him. To have this it takes our desire and God’s help.
What is this steadfast spirit within us? I believe it is that uncompromising passion in our relationship with the Lord through Jesus Christ. It is that immovable determination of loyalty to Jesus. It is that attitude we see in Ephesians that tells us when evil comes we continue to stand keep standing on our solid rock Jesus Christ. To be able to do this it takes our desire and God’s help.
How can we be in the presence of God? Isn’t God everywhere? If so aren’t we always in his presence? Well, yes and no. Yes we can not go anywhere that God is not. Psalm 139:8 reminds us that even if we descend into hell God is there. What this is talking about is the practice of ignoring the presence of God or God no longer fellowshipping with us. There is an unforgivable sin that is tied into the day of our salvation. Strangely enough Jesus tells us in Matthew 12:31,32 that we can sin against him and it will be forgiven, but we can not sin against the Holy Spirit. Why is this the case? John 16:8-11 tells us that it is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sin, the righteousness of Christ and the judgment of God. If we reject the Holy Spirit we will never come to Jesus that can bring forgiveness for all sinfulness. The Holy Spirit sets us free of our carnal nature (Rom 8:8-17), transforms us into Christ-likeness (Gal 5:22,23) and empowers us to serve Jesus. (I Cor 12:1-11) To be able to practice the presence of God it takes our desire and God’s help.
How can we continually enjoy the Heavenly Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and our salvation? In many ways it is like anything else we enjoy, and that is we need to constantly think about it and participate with it in some way. Let’s take a Cub fan. A real Cub fan that enjoys the Cubs doesn’t spend their time watching other teams when they could be watching the Cubs. They daily check on their record, who is pitching well and always how their favorite player is doing. They don’t find any trouble talking about the Cubs. Several years ago Don Moen and Walt Harrah had a song called, “Think about his love”. It went basically; “Think about his love, think about his goodness, think about the times that he has brought us through” and the so goes on. I encourage you to google it and hear it for yourself. If it doesn’t move you heart, maybe just maybe, today's verse is for you for sure. But even with all these things and reading the Bible and prayer, it still takes God’s help. To have or restore the joy of our salvation it takes our desire and God’s help.
How can we have a truly willing spirit to sustain us? It seems no matter how hard we may try or how mature we are in Christ, there are and will be times when we feel like digging in our heels and saying no to God. Satan, the powers of darkness, the evil of this world will wear away at us until at time we want it all to stop. When this happens sometimes our frustration and brokenness lessens our desire to keep fighting the fight and swimming against the current. It happens to every Christian certainly when we try to sustain our passion for Jesus by our own determination. We need God’s help, and he is more than glad to help us. II Timothy 1:12 and I Corinthians 1:8 tell us that he is able to keep us unto the day of our salvation. All we have to do is desire it and God’s help.
Prayer: Lord, please help us with our relationship with you, and pilgrimage here on earth. We truly need you every hour, every day to do this. We love you Lord, and ask it in Jesus’ name.
