“Change Me, Oh God… Make Me Whole Jesus!”

By Lou Yeboah

“… Wash me through and through. Create in me a clean heart so that I may worship You.  Do it for me, Lord ¬ Change me!” [Change Me – Tamela Mann].

I tell you, we all have to make this our sincere, daily prayer: Oh God, Change me! Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Dig deep in me; show me where I’ve failed and gone astray. Expose my pride, anger, stubbornness and sin. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.  Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving-kindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Transform me into the image of Jesus. For Your name’s sake, Lord,  do in me what has to be done. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen. [Psalm 51:10-12; Psalms 139: 23-24;  1 John 1:9, Hebrews 13:8, 2 Corinthians 13:8].

I tell you, when you become aware of how great your sin is, you quickly realize that you are in desperate need of a God who is greater than those sins. A God who can remove your guilt and forgive you for all of eternity. There may be some of you reading this and you’ve never really considered how much sin there may be in your life. And I get that, because if you haven’t had an encounter with the presence of God, how would you even know? But I believe that the people who are most likely to pray this prayer like Isaiah did are the people who live with an awareness of their sin and an understanding of His grace. If that’s where you’re at, then you won’t be afraid to pray this dangerous prayer, “Change Me Oh, Lord….Make me whole Jesus! Make me over I pray! I’m ready for change. I’m so sick and tired of being sick and tired. I am a mass of contradictions; I don’t want to be, but I am. I preach a gospel of peace, but my life isn’t always driven by peace. I talk about a Jesus who alone can fully satisfy the soul, but I am often not satisfied. I celebrate a theology of amazing grace, but I often react in ungratefulness. And if I rest in God’s control, why do I seek it for myself? Even in moments when I think I am prepared, I end up doing what I didn’t want to do. There is this law operating inside of me. When I step out with a desire to do good, evil follows me wherever I go.  There are times when I feel like a prisoner, held against my will. So, have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love, according to Your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. I embrace the rescue that could only be found in You.” [Romans 7].

“The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt – a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, “Know the LORD,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. [Jeremiah 31:31-34].

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” [Romans 8:1-4].

Praise be to Him always that though we were once “dead in the trespasses and sins; God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” [Ephesians 2:1-5].

Praise be to Him and to Jesus our deliverer always.

Singing: “I know I’ve been changed, the angels in Heaven done signed my name…”  [I Know I’ve Been Changed -La Shun Pace]. “…I’ve been healed, freed, delivered, and right now is the moment, today, I’ve been changed, and I have waited for this moment to come, and I won’t let it pass me by; so I say, I won’t go back, can’t go back, to the way it used to be. No more chains, fear, my past is over…!” [I Won’t Go Back – William McDowell].