Daily Devotions
Sunday, August 3, 2025
“Create in me a new heart, Lord, That gladly I obey Your Word. Let what You will be my desire, And with new life my soul inspire.
“Grant that I only You may love And seek those things which are above Till I behold You face to face, O Light eternal, through Your grace.”
We ask the Lord to create a new heart within us because we really need a new one. This is not the heart that is the strong, muscular organ pumping blood through our bodies. The heart that we ask from the Lord, the heart that must be created anew, is our innermost self, the unseen place within us that holds our emotions and beliefs. From the moment we are conceived, this heart within us is twisted and corrupted by the sin inherited from Adam and Eve, our first parents. As we grow, we both regret and excuse the terrible filth that oozes from our inmost heart, the defiling thoughts, words, and behaviors that Jesus described: “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:19-20a). In desperate need of God’s grace and forgiveness, we offer the repentant prayer, “Create in me a new heart, Lord.”
Our prayer for a new heart has been answered. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, a sign announcing His so-called crime was posted above His head: “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews” (John 19:19b). Yet along with that written notice, we might imagine another, unseen sign fastened to His cross, a long list of terrible, defiling crimes: “Evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” Jesus carried the sins of our corrupt and twisted hearts in His own sinless body on the cross. He was judged, condemned, and punished for the wrong we have done and the good we have left undone. Jesus suffered the penalty of death that we deserved for the filth and sin that flow from our hearts.
For the sake of His Son, God canceled that list of sins, that record of debt we owed and could never pay. In His mercy, God set that debt aside, “nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:14b). Through faith in Jesus our sins are forgiven. We pray for a new, clean heart, and now, in Christ Jesus, we have one. It is a heart that gladly obeys God’s Word, a heart moved by the Holy Spirit to actively seek and do the will of God. It is a heart that daily seeks forgiveness and renewal, a heart made strong through the nourishment of Jesus’ body and blood in His holy Supper and the gift of God’s Word. God fulfilled His promise: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you” (Ezekiel 36:26a). In Christ, our sins are crossed out. Our hearts are made new.
WE PRAY: Lord, lead me to obey Your Word, live according to Your holy will, and serve You with all my heart. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler. It is based on the hymn, “Renew Me, O Eternal Light,” which is number 704 in the Lutheran Service Book.
Reflection Questions:
- Can our spiritual life have an impact on our physical life? If so, how?
- When God creates a clean heart within us, what does that mean?
- What can we do to help nourish our heart—our innermost self—to stay close to God?
Today's Readings:
Psalms 120-1222 Thessalonians 2