Morning, October 31
Go To Evening Reading
“Renew a right spirit within me.”
Psalm 51:10
A backslider, if there be a spark of life left in him will groan after
restoration. In this renewal the same exercise of grace is required
as at our conversion. We needed repentance then; we certainly need
it now. We wanted faith that we might come to Christ at first; only
the like grace can bring us to Jesus now. We wanted a word from the
Most High, a word from the lip of the loving One, to end our fears
then; we shall soon discover, when under a sense of present sin, that
we need it now. No man can be renewed without as real and true a manifestation
of the Holy Spirit’s energy as he felt at first, because the work is as great, and flesh
and blood are as much in the way now as ever they were. Let thy personal
weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make thee pray earnestly
to thy God for help. Remember, David when he felt himself to be powerless,
did not fold his arms or close his lips, but he hastened to the mercy-seat
with “renew a right spirit within me.” Let not the doctrine that you, unaided, can do nothing, make you
sleep; but let it be a goad in your side to drive you with an awful
earnestness to Israel’s strong Helper. O that you may have grace to plead with God, as though
you pleaded for your very life—“Lord, renew a right spirit within me.” He who sincerely prays to God to do this, will prove his honesty by using the means
through which God works. Be much in prayer; live much upon the Word
of God; kill the lusts which have driven your Lord from you; be careful
to watch over the future uprisings of sin. The Lord has his own appointed
ways; sit by the wayside and you will be ready when he passes by.
Continue in all those blessed ordinances which will foster and nourish
your dying graces; and, knowing that all the power must proceed from
him, cease not to cry, “Renew a right spirit within me.”