"WHAT SHOULD A CHRISTIAN PRAY FOR?"

May 15   “What Should A Christian Pray For?”    Psalm 51:10

*During this “Down Time,” because of the COVID19 pandemic, I want to encourage you to set aside a time for personal worship and praise.  Even though, we are unable to gather together, we are still a church family and I continue to pray that we will grow stronger and more determined to be what God wants us to be! READ, STUDY, PRAY, then, DO IT AGAIN!

Good morning from Pastor Glen Brock, Baptist Tabernacle Church, Wendell, North Carolina… “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”  (Psalm 51:10)      In the scripture today, David is making a request unto the Lord.  This is a beautiful request, but it does not seem fitting for a man like David to be making it.  It seems that a thief, or a liar, an adulterer, or murderer would want to pray this prayer, but this is not the case. This is David, who is known as the “man after God’s own Heart.”  David is considered to be one of the finest men that, has ever lived on the face of the earth.  But, did you know that a man can appear clean on the outside and still be sinful on the inside?  Many times we are shocked to find men who look clean and decent, committing such terrible deeds, but the outward appearance does not tell what is on the inside.  Most of the men in prison, who have committed hideous and gruesome crimes, look just like any ordinary man, as far as their outward appearance.  Why do we think some people are clean on the inside?  We forget that there are two kinds of sin.  One is known as Visible Sin.  The drunk, the thief, the liar, the fornicator commit these sins.  We can see their activities and, often we look down on these people.  My great Aunt would always say, especially when it came to one specific drunk that occupied one of her rental houses, “Those people have evil hearts!”  The other kind of sin is known as Invisible Sin.  You see, David was committing Invisible Sins (which later became visible sins).  From the outside, David looked amazing, but on the inside, his thoughts, his motives and his ambitions were truly sinful!  It was from this type of “evil” that David cried out to the Lord, “CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD; AND RENEW A RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN ME!”  We can’t detect the inward sin of others, just by looking at them.  There was a little boy by the name of Glen and he was told by his mother to sit down while the car was moving (this was before seatbelts were even in cars, or at least our car).  Finally, Glen, with reluctance and with a frown of displeasure on his face, obeyed his mother and sat down.  When he noticed that his mother was not completely happy with him, he said to her, “Well, you told me to sit down, and I did, but on the inside I am standing up!”  Many of us are going through a form of obedience, but our evil hearts are doing just the opposite.  David, from without, seemed to be in obedience to God, but within, he was not!  Friends, it takes courage to confess that we have sinful hearts.  It is hard to admit that we are guilty of inner sin when others have confidence that we are living a Holy Life.  Being a “Preacher’s Kid” required a certain standard of behavior and a demonstration of certain, expected abilities.  So, I was to act “Holier than Thou,” and to be able to quote scripture and to be able to talk “Church Talk” with the best of the membership.  Guess what?  I was going through the motions, attempting to meet expectations.  I discovered something, in my early 20’s that Davis recognized, also.  We need clean hearts!  Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 17:9 said, “The heart is deceitful  above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” The trouble is in the Heart, not in the Head.  Interestingly, David did not ask God to rehabilitate his heart, he asked for God to “Create a new heart within him.”  I recognized that say fact in my own life and I asked God to “create in me a new heart, a new heart that was real and true and faithful!”  When I realized that my actions were not pleasing in HIS sight and that I was a miserable man, I fell to my knees in true confession, asking God  to forgive me and to cleanse me and to create a new heart in me!  I continue; each day, to remember that time, that day and that answer to my prayer.  Nat “King” Cole used to sing, “It’s not my mother, not my father, but it’s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer!”  We really do need to prayer, with sincerity, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”  I am praying for you! Praying that you will be real, inside and out!  Stay Strong, Stay Focused… Remember, THE BEST IS YET TO BE!