The Creator of a Fresh Start

It's not really about me is it? I know this truth but does my life reflect its reality? The truth is I'm a control freak who constantly must die to myself and focus on my Savior or else my pride and fears of the unknown will cover me like ocean waves. Giving my life to Christ was not a difficult decision, but daily surrendering my life to His control is only done by His grace and mercy.

As I read Psalm 51 I am reminded and can't help but celebrate the Creator of a fresh start. The One who wipes out our bad records and knows the full extent of everything we have done including what mistakes haunt our dreams and plague our minds with shame and doubt. Oh yes my friends, He knows and praise God He does. He is omniscient so we can truly be free!

Completely clean! Brand new! As if whatever haunts us never happened. He scrubs away the guilt and restores our souls so we can praise Him. If in our rebellion we leave, He waits for us to return. When our lives are shattered, He rebuilds them with love and our hearts can't help but worship. He is the Maker, Rebuilder, and Creator of a Fresh Start!

How do we receive this fresh start? How does God rebuild what is broken and make us new again? How is sin forgiven and shame extinguished? By one word friends... LOVE. The love that God gives to those who come to Him dirty, transparent, and truthful. The love that is given when forgiveness is asked for. A love that wipes away all my wrong doings so hearts can truly worship Him. God wants us to love Him in a real and transparent way. Holding nothing back and hiding nothing from Him so He can be generous in love and huge in mercy.

We all need a fresh start, lots of opportunities to love because we will never get it right. So I celebrate today the Creator of a fresh start. I celebrate the love He gives when we come to Him transparent and real, hiding nothing from Him. Don't go through the motions. Be open, be honest, He knows it all anyways. You cannot hide but you can accept His grace and His sacrifice so He can create a fresh start for you. If you have been gone from Him for a long time, come running back today and celebrate the good scrubbing that happens when we receive a fresh start with Jesus.

^1-3 Generous in love—God, give grace!
    Huge in mercy—wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
    soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been;
    my sins are staring me down.

^4-6 You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen
    it all, seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
    whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
    in the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out.
    Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

^7-15 Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
    scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
    set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
    give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
    shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
    or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
    put a fresh wind in my sails!
Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
    so the lost can find their way home.
Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
    and I’ll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.
Unbutton my lips, dear God;
    I’ll let loose with your praise.

^16-17 Going through the motions doesn’t please you,
    a flawless performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
    when my pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
    don’t for a moment escape God’s notice.

^18-19 Make Zion the place you delight in,
    repair Jerusalem’s broken-down walls.
Then you’ll get real worship from us,
    acts of worship small and large,
Including all the bulls
    they can heave onto your altar!