The Optimist’s Roundtable

By Martha Sykes

“Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me”. These words are found in Psalm 51 and they come from David as he prays to ask God to make his heart clean after he had sinned!

As I was thinking about this Lenten season, I thought about how we could pray that same prayer and ask God to give us clean hearts, and help to renew our spirit during these days before Easter.

We sure have been reminded about being clean during these past few years going through this pandemic, when hand sanitizer has become a big part of our everyday life!!

Being clean is important and Jesus wants to help us to have a clean heart. We can turn all of our concerns, all of our past troubles and junk into something that can be used to help others. We have all been reminded many times that God’s mercies are new every morning. He can renew our minds every day!! This time of Lent is valuable time for us to truly look into our hearts and clean out the junk that keeps us from having a good relationship with Jesus. This is the time for us to give our troubles to Jesus and bring them to the cross where He paid for it all! Let Him forgive our sins and help us to have a clean heart for Him to fill up with His great love and mercy.

One of my many favorite songs is “Something Beautiful” and it goes like this:

Something beautiful, something good. All my confusion, He understood. All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful of my life.

Just like David, Jesus can create a clean heart in each of us, help to renew a beautiful spirit in us and give us new life!