by Dennis Gladden, By Green Pastures, ©2024
(Mar. 24, 2024) — I want to pass along a song that is also a prayer for this Passion Week.
To you, the words will be a prayer or a song, but they are mine and they may speak for some of you, too. They were birthed years ago when God was in long labor to form Christ in me (Galatians 4:19-20).
Two sayings of Jesus, like two persistent pangs, pressed me hard:
“Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3)
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).
I despaired that such change or purity would ever come to life in me, and I cried with King David,
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. —Psalm 51:2-3,10
No, I had not committed murder or adultery or deceit—the sins that weighed upon David in this lament. Sin is defined as coming short of the mark—an archery term that means to miss the target. Purity and change: these were the mark, looming always beyond my best efforts.
It takes time for God to open your heart and to open your eyes to what’s inside. Someone has called this period that all Christians experience the dark night of the soul. Would that it lasted a night.
The experience is like going through heart surgery. In fact, God likened it to that.
The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. (Deuteronomy 30:6)
No one craves going under the knife. We want to jump off the table. We want to run away, like the disciples who couldn’t bear the toughening teaching of Jesus (John 6:66).
I wanted to, too. But Peter’s answer when Jesus asked, “Do you also want to go away?” held me time and again. “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
Eventually, my own psalm emerged. I sang it often, and still do.
I offer it to you. The words are mine, but they may express what you hurt too much to put into words yourself. Just as the Psalms do so often when we don’t know what, or how, to pray. What a gift they are—our desires, longings, anguish, fears, and hope—wrapped in words for us to repeat.
Lord, Make Me Like You I've washed my hands To make them clean. But the stain is deep— It can't be seen; It's in my heart. Is there anything That can reach inside And give a brand-new start? Lord wash me. Cleanse me. Make me anew. Make me pure. Make me like You. Lord, You're all that I want to be. Come now, and just now, fill me.