DEVOTION: April 1

We love New Year’s resolutions and words for the year. We love befores and afters and do it yourself transformations. We love to begin again. Not new and improved, because that’s an oxymoron, but REnewed and improved. 

We love renewal.

Being renewed means what was once new became dulled and dusted, but then given new life again. Like an antique buffet that’s been sanded and painted, proudly greeting guests at the front door. Or an old Caddy, restored to its original lacquer and luster, shining in the sun with the top down. Or a loved one who struggled with an addiction but overcame, light shining in their eyes as they embrace a family they never thought they’d have.

We love renewal, and we crave it, too.

There’s a psalm we’ve all memorized where David says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” (Psalm 51:10). David asks God for two specific things: to create what is altogether missing — a clean heart; and to renew a right spirit in him. To take his spirit that was originally shiny and bright and holy, and restore it back to that state. To do an ultimate fixer upper on the foundation of his spirit that had deteriorated in sin and selfish gain. 

Our souls long for this kind of renewal. We are designed to crave a holy redo. God uses the Holy Spirit to lovingly correct and convict when we’ve eroded God’s house. And once we see the true state of our current spirit, we’re desperate for an after photo. We plead with God for restoration, just like David did.

And the amazing thing—the extraordinary and magnificent thing—is that He does it. He takes our earnest prayer for a renewed spirit and answers it. And He charges nothing for it, it’s free. No cost for upgrades or labor.

Do you need a renewal in your spirit today? Pray the prayer of David from Psalm 51:10, and ask God to create and renew in your life today.

“God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.” (Psalm 51:10, The Message)