" Cast me not away from thy presence O, Lord. And take not that Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and Renew a right Spirit Lord in me." The first time I heard this Bible verse put to lyrics ( many years ago) it became one of my favorite songs to sing at church. I am not sure I paid much attention to the verse in Psalms before hearing it in song, as a young adult. Today, I still like singing the song, and I love reading those verses in the Bible. "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. " ~Psalm 51:10-11~ I have read these verses many times, but one day about five years right after the Lord allowed me to survive a near death experience, and I had spent many many weeks in the hospital, I was reading them and began to think how when these words were penned surely it wasn't a prayer, void of feeling and emotion as we often quote it, or sing it. I believe there was feeling and depth, sorrow and tears. More than just merely saying the words , I believe there was repentance and a cry to be heard. Remorse for sin committed. I knew that I was saved but knew also that the Lord allowed me to live for a reason. I didn't know that reason but knew that He had something else for me to do, and that I needed to walk the walk and talk the talk like I never had before. Therein lies.. " Create in me a new heart and a right spirit Lord in me." I have prayed this verse over and over and over, and I wonder how many times it was actually just a repetitive prayer for me. I think there are too many scriptures in the Bible we read like we're reading our daily planner. I've seen people get more excited, myself included about quoting Baseball scores, especially the Red Sox scores, or favorite football team wins or the Nascar wins, reading off a delicious recipe, I am often excited about some of those things. When it comes to Bible reading, whether reading in my quiet time or reading a verse or a passage the pastor is preaching on Sunday mornings, There are many times that I have read it when I can recall hurrying through it forgetting that there is great meaning behind EVERY word in this precious book and not gleaning the message in that particular passage.. Everybody that knows me knows that I love the word of God and I study the word of God, but do I study it enough? Without any doubt I can say, " No, I do not." As I write this I am promising the Lord that I will spend more time in His word, hiding it away in my heart, so that I might walk very close to Him and not sin against Him. I have always thanked God that I was brought up in a church that taught the children scripture and that at an early age the Lord gave me a desire to learn his word. In the past I use to pride myself in the fact that I knew the word very well, but you know what happens when we have pride in our hearts of ANY kind..."it goes before a fall." I am thankful today that the Lord has cleaned that out of my heart, and the "I" out of my thoughts and placed a sincere desire for the word in it's place and also a greater desire to share the word with others that I meet every day. We're living in a day when we need all of Gods word that we can store up in our hearts. The Bible is not just a manuscript , void of life and meaning but it is God's love letter to us. Between it's covers is everything that we need to know and do for our survival here and to live eternally with Him. Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit in me. I need God's Spirit renewed in me over and over again so that my heart will stay clean and I that I will glean from God's Word that which He intended all along, a deeper more personal relationship with my Him..my Father. Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation, and uphold me with thy free Spirit. I wonder if any of you reading this have lost the joy of your salvation? Does it need to be restored? Delve deep into God's word and don't let go. Latch on like a dog with a bone and don't let anyone take it away from you. God's Word is life and truth. Only in Christ can our hearts be pure and true. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. John 1:1-2 That's proof if we want a deeper relationship with God, we've got to dig into His Word! My desire is to be all that He wants me to be... Gabby |