Psalm 51:10

A backslider, if there is a spark of life left in him, will groan for restoration. In this renewal, the same exercise of grace is required as at our conversion. We needed repentance then; we certainly need it now. We needed faith that we might come to Christ at first; only the same grace can bring us to Jesus now.

We needed a word from the Most High, a word from the lips of the loving One, to end our fears then; we will soon discover, when under a sense of present sin, that we need it now. No one can be renewed without as real and true a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s energy as they felt at first, because the work is as great, and flesh and blood are as much in the way now as ever they were.

Let your personal weakness, O Christian, be an argument to make you pray earnestly to your God for help. Remember, David, when he felt himself to be powerless, did not fold his arms or close his lips, but he hastened to the mercy seat with “renew a right spirit within me.” Do not let the doctrine that you, unaided, can do nothing, make you sleep; but let it be a goad in your side to drive you with a solemn earnestness to Israel’s strong Helper.

Oh, that you may have grace to plead with God, as though you pleaded for your very life—“Lord, renew a right spirit within me.” He who sincerely prays to God to do this will prove his honesty by using the means through which God works. Be much in prayer; live much upon the Word of God; kill the lusts which have driven your Lord from you; be careful to watch over the future uprisings of sin.

The Lord has His own appointed ways; sit by the wayside, and you will be ready when He passes by. Continue in all those blessed ordinances which will foster and nourish your dying graces; and, knowing that all the power must proceed from Him, do not cease to cry, “Renew a right spirit within me.”