Restore the default setting

Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10

Psalm 51 is a classic passage about repentance and restoration. As a result of his adultery with Bathsheba, David wrote Psalm 51 asking God to cleanse his heart, renew his steadfast spirit, and restore joy to him. 

A repentant heart often leads to restoration. Mankind is constantly battling the sinful nature of Adam, who was once created from God's divine nature as the default setting. By restoring His children back to His original image, God has been working ceaselessly in His restoration business.

Often we can find words in the bible with restoration words like “renew”, “revive”, “return” and “replace”, the word renew here means to repair in Hebrew, so it sounds like restore to the default setting. 

Also, David asked the Lord to renew him a steadfast spirit. Steadfast is “Kun” in Hebrew means to set up, to make right or to fix. Imagine that each one of us is a faulty product, and that human attempts to fix our issues by using inferior or counterfeit hardware and software, like our own way, idols, or false teaching, which will lead to malware and failure.

How should faulty products be handled? Bringing the products back to the original manufacturer to fix the issues. Restoration comes only from God, and only He can help us reset our original state as partakers of His divine nature.  Our Holy Spirit is like the built-in troubleshooting tools that help us fix the issues in our lives.

Whether we want to receive physical and emotional healing, overcome sin, or fix our life messes, let us pray like David and ask God to repair a right spirit within us so that we can be restored to God's default setting, namely His original plan and image.

Blessing prayer: May you conform us to the image of Christ so that we are possessed by the divine nature of Christ and only you, Lord, can fix our issues and make us anew. In Jesus’ name, Amen.