A Clean Heart And Steadfast Spirit

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (1)

God does not merely cleanse the heart; He creates in His forgiven child a new heart. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes." (2)

"There is a remedy for the sin-sick soul. That remedy is in Jesus. Precious Saviour! His grace is sufficient for the weakest; and the strongest must also have His grace or perish.

"I saw how this grace could be obtained. Go to your closet and there alone plead with God. 'Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.' Be in earnest, be sincere. Fervent prayer availeth much. Like Jacob, wrestle in prayer. Agonize. Jesus in the garden sweat great drops of blood; you must make an effort. Do not leave your closet until you feel strong in God; then watch, and just as long as you watch and pray, you can keep these evil besetments under, and the grace of God can, and will, appear in you." (3)

The heart in which Jesus dwells will be quickened, purified and guided by the Holy Spirit. The human agent will make strenuous efforts to bring his or her character into harmony with God. They will avoid everything that is contrary to the revealed will of God. The grace of God will sweep through the chambers of the mind, the imagination will have heavenly themes to contemplate, and every element of the nature will be purified and vitalized by the Spirit of God.

"So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened." (4)

1. Psalm 51:10.
2. Ezekiel 36:26, 27.
3. God's Amazing Grace, p. 87.
4. Luke 11:9, 10.