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Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness;
         According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.

2Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
         And cleanse me from my sin.

3For I know my transgressions,
         And my sin is ever before me.

4Against You, You only, I have sinned
         And done what is evil in Your sight,
         So that You are justified when You speak
         And blameless when You judge.

5Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
         And in sin my mother conceived me.

6Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being,
         And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

7Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
         Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8Make me to hear joy and gladness,
         Let the bones which You have broken rejoice.

9Hide Your face from my sins
         And blot out all my iniquities.

10Create in me a clean heart, O God,
         And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11Do not cast me away from Your presence
         And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.

12Restore to me the joy of Your salvation
         And sustain me with a willing spirit.

13Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
         And sinners will be converted to You.

14Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation;
         Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

15O Lord, open my lips,
         That my mouth may declare Your praise.

16For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it;
         You are not pleased with burnt offering.

17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
         A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.

18By Your favor do good to Zion;
         Build the walls of Jerusalem.

19Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices,
         In burnt offering and whole burnt offering;
         Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

A close brother of mine texted me today with 1 John 5 as a strengthening and encouraging passage for today and as I read it, it rang something that sometimes we so easily forget.

I’ve been married for 2 1/2 years now and I love my wife with all my heart and I find myself doing things that I normally would not do because of my love for her. I want to lead, serve, sacrifice, and honor her and make her happy and I don’t see these things to be burdensome, but I find joy in doing them because I love her.  

1 John 5:3 - “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” 

I pray and hope that our love for Him would be like this, that abiding and living according to His Word is not burdensome, but joyful because of the overflowing love we have for Him because He first loved us!

Matthew 15:11, 17-20 - 11 - “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

17-20 - “Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated?  But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.  These are the things while defile the man….”

Jeremiah 17:9 - “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”

This morning as I meditated on these passages, I was reminded of something J.D. Greer mentioned in his book “Gospel” which I highly recommend about his own heart that though outwardly the actions of sin may not be so apparent, inwardly, there is so much sin taking place with harboring evil thoughts, anger, bitterness, jealousy, etc, which happens in all our hearts and lately, as at the day progresses, I’ve realized more and more how wicked and evil my heart is, how easily thoughts of anger, hatred, bitterness, pride, etc easily come about and my question in all of this is how much do we truly repent and ask God to cleanse us from the inside out when we realize these things?  I’ve been finding myself during my prayer times, reflecting on my heart and as that has been taking place, I realize more and more how much I need His forgiveness, grace, and mercy, though outwardly things may seem ok, inwardly there is a war going on and as I read through these verses today, my encouragement to anyone reading this is please accept the fact that my and your heart is truly deceitfully wicked, do not think that you’re good for one second because that is the deceitfulness kicking in, but come to realize the true state and condition of your heart that you and I would continue to be led to repentance, continuing to being molded to the image of Christ that as our hearts continue to become purified, what comes out from out hearts through our mouths would not be slandering, discouraging, unwholesome (Eph. 4:29), but uplifting, encouraging, and strengthening to those around us.

I’ve been reading through Matthew in my personal studies and I’m going through Chapter 14 now and as I was reading this morning, I came across that wonderful passage of Jesus and Peter in the boat and the water:

Matt. 14: 28-31

Peter said to Him, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” And He said, “Come!” And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”

We all know this story, but it was such a great reminder to me because here is Jesus inviting Peter to come out in what we would consider impossible and dangerous conditions, I mean, I don’t even know if I would’ve gotten out of the boat imagining that we were in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or Amazon River or even just a deep lake, just the fact that yes, I’m most likely going to fall, man, what a hard decision to make.  But here is Jesus inviting us into something completely impossible, but being fixed upon Him and standing firm having faith that He would not let us fall into the depths of our own oceans, man, I realize that little faith I still have that so easily I let the distracting winds of life and the depths of challenges and obstacles faze my focus.  But what an amazing King we have in Christ that still He helps us to stay focused and helps us to stand in the midst of all of it, as Peter was, we are truly in His grip.