Bible lessons for persons with cognitive disabilities
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Psalms 51 "create in me a clean heart" (© Jeff McNair)
We began this lesson by singing the song
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a right spirit within me.
If you go to this web link, you can get the guitar chords and music
v 10 - Create in me a clean heart
What is wrong with my heart? Your heart is dirty.
What is it that makes your heart dirty? The things we do, the way we act, the way we treat other people.
It is also a prayer, though because it says to God, "Create in me a clean heart." I can't make my own heart clean. I need someone else, God, to make my heart clean. There are some things I can do for myself, there are other things I need someone else to do for me. To get a clean heart, I need God, I need to get forgiveness.
Then verse 10 also says "renew a steadfast spirit" in me.
I need to take a stand, to not quit, to not be a wimp. One of the things that the devil will try to do for me is get me to quit. He will try to convince me that I am worthless and that I am no good. I cannot believe that lie about me, but must instead not give up on God and what he can do for me to forgive me and give me a clean heart.
v 12 - Restore the joy of your salvation
We can think, when we do bad things, that God is sick of us because we keep on doing bad things. But that is another lie from the devil. God will forgive us if we only ask him. That is the joy of our salvation. Remember when you first knew that God forgives you? Remember how happy you felt? Remember how thankful you felt? The writer of this Psalm asks God to help him feel that way again. Whenever we think about the fact that we have been saved because we believe in Jesus, we should be really happy, really joyful.
It then says "Give me a willing spirit."
Willing to do what? To do the things we should do. Micah 6:8 says that he has shown you "what the Lord wants you to do. But to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." Those are the things we should be willing to do.
v 17 - This verse also says that we should come to God with a broken spirit and a broken humble heart. Maybe nothing can make your heart dirtier than pride. God wants us to come to him knowing that we need his forgiveness. Pride means that we think too much about ourselves. If we think we are better than other people, then we have pride. God will break your pride because that is what it takes to have a clean heart, and God wants you to have a clean heart.
We then closed our lesson by singing the create in me a clean heart song several times with our eyes closed as a prayer.
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© Jeff McNair