New Life Part 2

If we want to life a new life in Christ and claim the promise of God to have a fresh start and be made new, the question is what is it that you and I need to do on the first day of this new beginning? What do we do on the first day of the rest of our lives. Well, I want to share with you a prayer that is found in Psalms 51 that helps us to understand what we do to begin a new beginning. David is the writer of this prayer and it is a prayer that he prays after he has been confronted about being a murderer and an adulterer. It a prayer that helps David begin to live a new life in Christ.

¹ Have mercy on me, O God,

according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

blot out my transgressions.

² Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Often when we want to make a change we just start doing the new thing. We say I want to live this way so we pretend that that is how we live. This usually ends with us not sustaining the change because we are just acting, we are pretending that we are something that we are not. We can't maintain the change because it is a facade that we are hiding behind rather than it being the product of being changed by God. It is something we are trying to do rather than something we are becoming. David shows us the place to begin is with being honest about who we are and being honest about our inability to change ourselves. It is about being real about the stuff that we do and don't do. It is about understanding that only God can really make things new. Change begins when we are honest about ourselves and our need for God and we ask him to make the change. David says, God this is who I am, I am sinner, I am dirty, I need you to clean me I need you to create in me a clean heart because I am not capable of doing it-- you know and I know what I am capable of. I need you to change me.

A new beginning for you and me begins when we stop pretending and start being real about who we are and our need for God. The truth is God loves us just the way that we are, we don't have to pretend that we are something we are not, but he loves us enough that he wont leave us that way. He promises to change us and to give us new life in him.

Love today.

In Christ love and mine,

Doug