Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–
October 31– Morning
by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff
“(Lord), renew a right spirit within me.”
—Psalm 51:10
When one falls away from the Lord into sin, if there is any spark of life left in him, he will groan after restoration. In this renewal process the same exercise of grace is needed as at our conversion. We needed repentance then, and we certainly need it now. We needed faith in order to come to Christ at first, and only the same grace can bring us to Jesus now. We wanted a word from the Most High– a word from the lips of the loving One— to end our fears then, and, when we are under a sense of present sin, we need it again.
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 they ever were. Let your personal weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make you pray earnestly for God’s help.
Remember David, when he felt himself to be powerless, did not fold his arms or close his lips, but he ran to the mercy-seat and said, “renew a right spirit within me.” Don’t let the doctrine of your unaided ability to do anything make you fall asleep to your responsibility; 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.”
The one who sincerely prays to God to do this will prove his honesty by using the means through which God works. Pray a lot! Live on 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 the ordinances of God which foster and nourish your dying graces; and, knowing that all the power must proceed from him, don’t cease to cry, “Renew a right spirit within me.” [M&E]
