Today, Monday May 08
“Renew A Right Spirit Within Me”
Psalm 51:8-12
“Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”
In Psalm 51 we are talking about getting right with God! David knew if he wanted to be “right” with others he first needed to be right with God! For the past several days we have talked about how pride and sin in our hearts is the root of our problems. From Proverbs 13:10 we learn, that, “Only by pride comes contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.”
Years ago, I heard a message on another verse in Proverbs that has stuck with me over the years. “The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear?” (Proverbs 18:14). In other words, if we have the right kind of spirit in us, it will sustain, help, bring healing to our infirmities, our sicknesses, and our broken lives. But if we have a “wounded spirit” or a wrong spirit, we will not be able to deal with the real issues in our hearts and lives.
My understanding of Scripture leads me to believe that we were created by God with a body, that within it has an eternal living soul, which is the real you. Your soul is your personality, your intellect, your emotions, and your will. And inside that soul is a spirit. When God created Adam, it says that after He formed his body from the dust of the ground, He breathed into him the breath of life and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). In the most innermost part of our being is a spirit that has that mysterious ingredient from God that is called life.
Initially, our spirit was connected to God in wonderful communion and fellowship, but when Adam sinned a disconnect took place. He experienced “spiritual death”, which is separation from God. We are all born as sinful creatures, separated from God and we need a “regenerated”, a renewed spirit. And this happens only by, and through Jesus Christ. Titus 3:4-7 describes it this way: “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
We know this has happened because, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16). So now we have renewed “human spirit” that has the Holy Spirit, God Himself, dwelling in it. But if we are not careful, we can grieve the Holy Spirit, or even quench Him, and we end up with a “wounded spirit”. That’s why David prayed, “take not thy Holy Spirit from me, and renew a right spirit within me” (v. 10).
If we become careless with our communion and fellowship with the Lord, we can experience a “wounded, crushed, or broken spirit”. It will manifest itself in many ways depending on how it was wounded. It can become a proud spirit, a jealous spirit, a critical spirit, a vindictive spirit, a bitter spirit, a guilty spirit or even a selfish spirit. And the devil knows how to use that kind of spirit to lead us to sin and cause conflict in our relationships with others.
James 4:5-10 tells us what happens when we allow the “spirit and friendship with the world” to gain control in our lives, and what we must do to correct it: “What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the spirit God has placed within us is filled with envy? But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.” So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.”
My friend, that is why David prayed, “renew a right spirit within me”! Today, maybe we need to do the same as we practice what James tells us! May the Lord give us a humble and right spirit, that is sweet, kind, loving, patient, forgiving, generous, and good!
God bless!
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