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 Sirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
This psalm was written after David sinned and David was confronted by the prophet Nathan. This psalm is a source of encouragement for us who sinned not necessarily the same sin that King David committed. Anyway with the sin comes God's discipline which is followed by lost of fellowship with God. As this psalm reveal ,God also wants to restore us. And for us restoration can come by doing what brought us to God in the first place.
What is idolatry ? Some will say it is the worship of idols. Maybe some have different definition of idolatry. For me it is anything I put before God. If I woke up in the morning and I start seeking anything other than prayer to God then for me that is idolatry. I will have to confess that I am guilty of this multiple times.
My other idolatry is when my desire to be good in my chosen hobby that I become obsessive and too passionate that I put aside the thought of God.
What tells me that I am into idolatry is when I sense my temper flaring up for other things while I am cool and not bothered when God and Jesus are being disrespected.
There are more but probably it is not right for me to parade my idolatry.
I sense that my idolatry is bad for my soul and health. With God's help, my idolatry will be destroyed and then there will be nothing be in between me and my God. Does that mean I won't have interest in other things ? No, it is simply that other things will be behind me.
Jesus has been everything to me and on this blog I will shortly deal with how He is my Refuge and my Help. In my 56 years of my life here on earth Jesus has been my Refuge, from the time I was not aware of Him and to the time I became aware of His existence and presence. Awareness is the word I used because my physical eyes have not seen Him but I will see Him someday.
My personal knowledge of Jesus comes from my reading the Bible and from hearing messages about Him from Catholic priests, nuns,laymen, Protestant preachers and laymen, Christian non denominational preachers and laymen. I even heard description about Jesus from non Christians.I also have seen several movies about Jesus. I heard some people claim to be Jesus but I have not seen one myself.I understand church buildings, cathedrals are built in His name. Many people lost their lives in the name of Jesus and many people became rich because of His name and other people became poor. Many charitable institutions are built in His name.I heard some people reject Him.
Jesus answers my prayers but not all of them, and I sensed that He does that to increase my faith in Him and to grow as a Christian.
Through all my fears,sorrows, sadness , failures , success , etc Jesus has been my Refuge and my Help and I hope yours too.
On our spiritual journey, sometimes we got stranded. The things we used to do and enjoy , for some reasons or another got stopped and can not get started. Just like an inertia of rest, where something will stay motionless unless acted upon by outside force.
In my previous understanding, man does the initiation of doing God's work. An example is in the past I try to do evangelism when I feel like doing it. Later studies, particularly in a book by Henry Blackaby " Experiencing God", he stated that the first reality of experiencing God is God is always at work around you. And since He is at work, those who are looking for what to do, need to look around and see where God is working and join Him there.
Maybe I took my focus off on what God is doing and rather been looking on what is going on the world.
Well I will be on the road again looking for what God is doing and will try to join Him there.