Create IN Me

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
~Psalm 51:10

I got up this morning and started my breakfast… coffee, cereal & hard boiled eggs. I love Sundays. Church is at 4:00 pm so I have the entire day to rest, have my breakfast, read, write, pray and worship. It is my best day and least chaotic from the Monday through Saturday madness. As God rested on the 7th day, I take that concept well too.

As I began prepping my breakfast and peeling the eggs I thought of transparency in us as individuals. I thought this one we would call, “Peeling” because no one really enjoys that part. If you don’t cook the egg well enough it is hard to peel. There is this clear layer of skin you have to catch to the shell in order to peel the entire coating off egg without breaking it. This clear part is the most sensitive to get to the inside. This is the part in us that we least desire to remove. But if we did remove this layer and become transparent then maybe it will be the best thing in order for us to discover who we really are within.

For we are always focused most on the outer part of us. Everything on what you see. But what about the inside? Isn’t that most important? I think mainly for what we have all experienced in life, testing, trials and living, we have put on a strong shell around us. We don’t let anything or anyone in. But that is not how God expects us to live. Surely, we have to be careful in life–that is most definitely. But that doesn’t mean that you have to walk around with the hardest part of you on display. Sometimes that transparency is actually the door to allow you and others to experience the best things.

You know I love the book of Psalms so much because it is the most transparent book in the bible. It exemplifies humanity in every aspect, life, the foreshadow of Christ and the power of His redemptive work over flawed earthly beings. King David needed that redemptive work –but he would have never received it if he had not been the transparent man that he was. His feelings are on display. His mistakes are on display. His entire life is all on display. And in leadership we will find that we will often be in places before all where we are on display. This is certainly not easy. But this is not meant for a position to be less transparent. In fact it will require you to be more so–for many of which run from that calling of leadership because they are not willing to be that one on display.

Why not?

I am still reading through a recovery journal by Mike Shea called, “New Day, New Me” and I encourage many people to get a hold of this book. It is not only extreme and uplifting material but it is a place for you to document progress in life.

He writes midway into this journal on, “Honesty and Integrity”.

“Why am I more concerned about what others think of my confession than I am about my own freedom?”

“It doesn’t matter what we’ve done; it matters where we’re going!”

“The Father forgives us, the Son takes away our shame and guilt and the Holy Spirit removes.”

“Lord, I pray that you’ll fill all my empty spots with your truth which sets me free.”

This is my story, for only 40 years later have I come to the most liberating and intimate relationship in my walk with God than I have ever been even since first meeting my Savior in 1997.  I have done much, learned much and have traveled to many places in which God would take me. Only this year I had come to realize the place that He wanted to really take me was a place deep WITHIN HIM! That to me was freedom! That was my door to a place of everlasting victory. It would be in this place that I would have wings like eagles.

Transparency has been a major key for my recovery in life and a key for to hold onto my victory. It has been through being transparent that I would come to a place where I could accept who God wanted me to become. A New Creature In Him. I have done a lot of things even as a Christian that have never made me happy or fulfilled me within. I have always had that hearts cry, like there had to be more. I pushed past a lot of crime, criticism and complacency. I pushed past fear, failure and countless flaws. Only to find a lasting identity in Him.

So do not fear, for I am with you.
Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you.
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Isaiah 41:10

With all previous history, I would be barred from religious society and many places for just anything done on the external. What about the inside, isn’t that the most important place where God is calling us to CREATE! He said, “Create IN ME A PURE HEART, O God and renew a steadfast spirit WITHIN me.” This was the deepest cry of the servant. So should it be for us.

All these things done on this outer shell is nothing compared to what God did WITHIN me. I am free. No one else could have given that to me in the way that my Lord has. I am transparent. I have made a lot of mistakes. But I have also made a lot of progress THROUGH GOD.

The greatest thing that God could ever do for you is not what can be done on the outside but what can be done on the INSIDE of you! That is something that could never be taken from you or destroyed… For all these outer things and outer shells are all temporary but the things that are inside are eternal…

All else shall perish.

The body… The gifts… The money… The houses… The cars…. All that will be destroyed and will deteriorate but not the soul, the mind or the spirit… That will go on forever.

That is why David wrote create IN ME, not create for me;
Outside of me;
Around me;
All that fails. But in me…. Give me a pure heart!
And a steadfast spirit!
That will remain; Because without that, I can do nothing right!

He said, GOD MY WAYS ARE BAD!!!

Cause me to walk!
Create in me; Direct my steps;
Make me; Mold me,
So that then you can use me!
My life is not my own! It is Yours!

Everything changes when He creates IN you!