Day 161 or June 10. Please let me start again. Our thoughts today are rooted in Psalm 51,
verse 10. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Now the big picture surrounding this verse. Today we are back into some Psalms by David,
and Psalm 53 is almost identical to Psalm 14 that we considered a few days ago. As
its main theme is looking at the fool who says there is no God, perhaps it is appropriate
to repeat it for us in the 21st century. This sort of wisdom bears repeating, and too often
it's rejected first time round.
Now today's action step. New starts are really attractive but very hard to come by in our
world. Today is a great reminder that we have a God who specializes in second chances. All
the way through the Bible, Old and New Testaments are dripping with offers of new starts from
God. In the world of computers, we are often asked if we really do want to start again
by reformatting a disk, as this will remove all previous data, which will not be able
to be retrieved in future. That's a techy way of explaining the Gospel. Our verse from
Psalm 51 first asks God to create a new start and then asks for strength and persistence
to keep going after receiving such a wonderful gift. Don't be fooled into thinking that
this is a salvation experience only. That's the first one. If I'm at all typical, it's
the first of many. So the question is, have you asked God for a new start? January 21st
could help crystallize your thoughts, so why not listen to that again? If however you have
already done this, but have messed up, then a simple reading of Psalm 51 verse 10 with
real sincerity is your next step. The Apostle John could have had this verse in mind when
he wrote in his first epistle, chapter 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. It's not just being
forgiven but being cleansed, a whole new start available to each of us today. How are you
to respond?