“Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
Create in me a clean mind, O God,
For my mind is filled with thoughts, evil thoughts, thoughts of lust, thoughts of plans to make and possessions to have. Thoughts of pleasure. Self-centered thoughts. Anxious thoughts. At times, wicked thoughts. Not “You” thoughts. “Your ways are higher than ours, Your thoughts are higher; yes much higher.”
So, create in me a clean mind O God, and renew a right spirit with me.
Create in me clean ears O God,
For I love to hear what I should not hear: Praises to affirm my worth, gossip to control others, sound that is noise to crowd You out.
Create in me clear ears, to hear Your voice alone.
Create in me clean eyes O God,
For I love to see that which inspires the mind to sin; to see riches, sexy bodies, the faults of others and much more. Grant that I may see this world with eyes of faith, not eyes of sin; eyes that see hurts and needs of fellow ones on the journey, eyes to see Your beauty, eyes to see good, eyes to see aright.
Create in me clean eyes; loving eyes, redeemed eyes, eyes to see You.
Create in me a clean mouth, O God
For I am full of words; lofty words, prideful words, hurtful words, venomous words. Words that shoot to injure and to kill, words that aim to hurt, words that are meant to make me look good and others look bad. Words, unholy words! Teach me to be “slow to speak and quick to listen.”
Create in me a clean mouth, O God.
Create in me clean hands and feet O God,
For my hands and feet are often occupied serving me, my interests and my concerns. O God, give grace that these hands and feet would be cleansed of unrighteousness and used only as instruments of Your grace.
Create in me clean hands and feet O God.
CREATE – because there is a need beyond that which exists in me, because I can not stir it up from within. You alone can create it.
IN ME – because “I” am in need, not only “the others.”
CLEAN – because of sin, filth and dirt encountered in this life and this world; because I live “among a people of unclean lips.”
HEART – because it is only at the heart where I can be transformed.
GOD – because You alone can create and Your alone can clean, and You alone can transform my heart.
“Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
Groan ups 