Listen and the read the text to “Purify My Heart”

Read Isaiah 6

When Isaiah saw the vision of God seated high on His throne surrounded by cherubim and seraphim crying, “Holy, holy, holy,” his natural reaction was to confess his own sinfulness. When God shows us a glimpse of is purity, we also see our fallen nature. In other words, the more we see of who God truly is the more we see of who we truly are. Isaiah cried out, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Each day, we need to recognize our humanity compared to God’s holiness. Spend time asking God for forgiveness of sins you’ve committed. Whether they’re seemingly insignificant or big, ask God to forgive you and to give you the strength not to commit them again. This is a daily activity. Certainly Christ’s death paid for our sins once and for all, but unless we daily realize our shortcomings, we will fall prey to pride. Bow before God and say, “Purify my heart.”

Holy Lord,
I have sinned times without number,
    and been guilty of pride and unbelief,
    of failure to find Thy mind in Thy Word,
    of neglect to seek Thee in my daily life.
My transgressions and short-comings
    present me with a list of accusations.
But I bless Thee that they will not stand against me,
    for all have been laid on Christ.
Go on to subdue my corruptions,
    and grant me grace to live above them.
Let not the passions of the flesh nor lustings
    of the mind bring my spirit into subjection,
    but do Thou rule over me in liberty and power.
I thank Thee that many of my prayers have been refused.
    I have asked amiss and do not have,
    I have prayed from lusts and been rejected,
    I have longed for Egypt and been given a wilderness.
Go on with Thy patient work,
    answering ‘no’ to my wrongful prayers,
    and fitting me to accept it.
Purge me from every false desire,
    every base aspiration,
    everything contrary to Thy rule.
I thank Thee for Thy wisdom and Thy love,
    or all the acts of discipline to which I am subject,
    for sometimes putting me into the furnace
        to refine my gold and remove my dross.

No trial is so hard to bear as a sense of sin.
If Thou shouldst give me choice to live
    in pleasure and keep my sins,
    or to have them burnt away with trial,
    give me sanctified affliction.
Deliver me from every evil habit,
    every accretion of former sins,
    everything that dims the brightness of Thy grace in me,
    everything that prevents me taking delight in Thee.
Then I shall bless Thee, God of Jeshurun,
    for helping me to be upright.
(from The Valley of Vision)