A Right Spirit

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
-Psalm 51:10 (KJV)

We are supposed to be repenting.  Repent means to turn away, to change direction.  Sin is wrong, so to stop sinning must be right.  The one who does not sin is right.  Is that right?

Being right can mean a couple of things.  It might mean correct, as in the right answer.  Or, it might mean stability or tranquility, as in; "I am alright". 

Being alright means balance, firmly established, secure, arranged, in order, and established.  This is what it might mean, in a deepest sense, when we say, "you are alright", or, "I am alright".

When we are not alright, we don't have stability.  Sinfulness is not alright and is unstable.  People can be sinning and think they are right or alright.  It takes conviction of sin, coming under conviction, for a person to realize they are not right, not alright; and to repent.  And that is what we have here in Psalm 51, with David.

David goes further than confessing his sins, asking forgiveness, and repenting or turning away from those sins.  David asks God to create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him.  David is asking God for a new and different heart than his own heart, that just sinned.

David is asking God to create in him a new heart.  Create means to make something out of nothing.  The life in Christ is more than just doing the right thing, it is to get a new heart that desires to please God.

God has been wanting us to do something more than to just do the right thing.  He has been wanting to give us new hearts.  God wants more for us than self-improvement.  He wants us to let him create a new life and then live it through us.

When Christ calls us, he is calling us to himself.  He asks us to die, to give up everything, and to let him live through us.  This is what it means to be a Christian.  His life in mine.  Him living through me.