Welcome to Buoy, a Life in Deeper Water podcast.

Episode 81. God Gives Me a Willing Spirit (when I bring my broken spirit to Him)

Hello human.

Over the past eight months, I have gone through an extended transition that has been the filter for how we responded to daily life. A thousand decisions, a relocation, new home, introductions to new neighbors, and a lifestyle with a different landscape, a change that needs a little time to settle in… but all good. Different waters, still deep—but new. God has victoriously led my family through it all, with so many blessings that have affirmed that truly God always goes before us.

But you might say I have been on sensory overload, working overtime on the earthly details, captive to my immediate environment, operating full force in response mode. A kind of life-in-your-face experience.

Which has brought me to a spiritual place I do not want to stay in any longer.

Adrift.

A little untethered.

That feeling when you realize your direction has gone off-course.

When you were sailing true north only to find yourself “tacking” your sail into every daily gust that comes along.

Earthly life does that. It deals moment-over-moment to us that way, sometimes.

So, I am feeling super contented right now because with BUOY I proactively commit to being in His Presence. And there is something so powerful about knowing I share this open water platform with you, and the rhythm of living in His name as we rock our faith together.

Today, my witness is about the power of letting God pull us back to Him when our tether seems too long in response to the immediate demands of earthly life. This could be a relocation like me: or anything, like a new baby, a troubling family relationship, a rough spot on the marriage road, a newly developed health condition, a financial challenge, and really, any sequence of things that keeps us so closely tethered to what’s in front of us, that we drift off from what is inside of us.

AKA, play time for my sinful nature. It’s not unlike standing in the tide. If I do not take a solid stance, I will be caught off balance with every wave. But God goes before me, and He is prompting me, calling me to walk toward Him.

I often turn to King David and the Psalms because how he processes his feelings are so familiar to me. How he seeks God is so real. In Psalm 51 he had just committed adultery with Bathsheba and was seeking repentance. Although it is a different circumstance, the process he goes through is such a transparent, transcendent way to seek closeness with God.

David’s approach is filled with clarity, three appeals to God, beginning with one we quote often.

Renew My Steadfast Spirit

Psalm 51

For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

Verses 1-10

1 Have mercy on me, O God,

    according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

    blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash away all my iniquity

    and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I know my transgressions,

    and my sin is always before me.

4 Against you, you only, have I sinned

    and done what is evil in your sight;

so you are right in your verdict

    and justified when you judge.

5 Surely I was sinful at birth,

    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;

    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;

    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

8 Let me hear joy and gladness;

    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.

9 Hide your face from my sins

    and blot out all my iniquity.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

So, in this section, his first appeal, King David asks for mercy according to God’s nature. That’s so powerful because he is not asking for a mercy that is defined by man. He asks for God’s mercy according to His unfailing love and great compassion.

And then He asked for God to wash away his sins and affirmed that he has sinned ONLY against God. God is sovereign and Lord of His life.

David proclaims that in his birth into sin, God desired faithfulness even in the womb and taught wisdom in that secret place.

What a testimony to God’s nature that He gives us the will to fight for our spiritual inheritance from the beginning of our lives.

Grant Me a Willing Spirit

David’s second appeal was to restore his joy and grant him a willing spirit.

Verses 11-15

11 Do not cast me from your presence

    or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,

    so that sinners will turn back to you.

14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

    you who are God my Savior,

    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.

15 Open my lips, Lord,

    and my mouth will declare your praise.

When I drift, I lose my joy. It’s the first thing to go… I remember having had it, I know it is still there, but I can’t fully access it because it comes from living in His presence. It comes from my Heavenly Father, my Savior, and the Holy Spirit.

I can’t long for it, or even want the joy of loving God without a willing spirit that comes from Him. And it is that spirit that keeps me tethered to His wind, His water.

A Broken Spirit, A Broken and Contrite Heart

And the third appeal David makes is his to personally do, it is ours to do, human. It is the sacrifice that brings us closest to God.

Verses 16-19

16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart

    you, God, will not despise.

18 May it please you to prosper Zion,

    to build up the walls of Jerusalem.

19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,

    in burnt offerings offered whole;

    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

I am so spiritually impressed with how David moves beyond the culture of daily sacrifices to matters of the heart. What he says to bring, what I bring to God is humility. That I need Him. That the faith, the foresight, the wisdom, the spiritual gifts all come from Him. Through His grace.  

What God Does, What I Do

Psalm 51 is THE WAY, the simple way back to the deep waters God wants you to sail in.

First, What God does: He creates a pure heart, He restores my joy, and renews and grants a steadfast, willing spirit in me.

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

 

What I do:  I give Him my broken spirit. I lay before Him my desire to do it on my own. To create this earthly, daily, demanding life before me through His Holy Spirit, not my own will.

17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;

    a broken and contrite heart

    you, God, will not despise.

My witness today is to share this personal testimonial promise based on God’s nature.

That God will “tack” (which means “turn” in sailing lingo), that God will tack your sail toward Him when you spend time with Him.

Pray before you read Psalm 51.

Read Psalm 51.

Pray again.

When you are in a spiritual place you do not want to stay, when life deals moments-over-moments that keep you so closely tethered to what’s in front of you that you drift off from what is inside of you…

God will turn your sail.