Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. Ps. 51:6 NIV
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.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you. -Ps. 51:10-13 NIV
We wonder why we are not more effective in our witnessing and the obvious answer is there all along. We need truth. We need to be the truth, but before we can be that, we need to accept truth and that means looking inward as much as looking outward. What the world sees and what we know to be true is often the complete opposite. If we are truly fooling ourselves, even the world sees the truth of our heart. In either case, God sees it all. He sees our actions and even more importantly, he sees our hearts. Scary, isn't it?
We cannot be used of God as a witness, or as the Psalmist said, we cannot "teach transgressors your ways", until there is truth in all aspects of our lives, until our heart is pure. It is when our heart is pure that we have the joy of our salvation that draws people to God. There is nothing else we can do to lead a lost and dying world to the truth. It requires looking deep inside, to the depths of our heart, where the truth of how much we need the cleansing blood of God's Son and the Holy Spirit's power is revealed.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. - Ps. 51:17 NIV
Lord God, teach me to be broken, broken and contrite. To weep for my sins even more than I weep for the sins of my country and of the world.
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