Change my heart, O God!

 I was having coffee with some friends of mine yesterday and we were having a great discussion about the stories we all tell ourselves. You know the ones. Those stories that create our worldview. Those stories that we look through and at everything in life.We all agreeded that the stories, the narratives that we have been given determines how we hear and respond to nearly all of life. Sometimes those stories are truth and sometimes they are not. If you were raised for example, in Russia in that latter part of the 20th Century your were told a certain story concerning America, (the reverse is also true).The question naturally arises what is the story that you've been told about Jesus, about God. What is the narrative that now controls your spiritual life? That narrative, that  story is how we intrepret everything, especially the Scriptures. It determines the "way" we live our lives and in no small way what we are able to receieve right now!I understand that my heart is being made "a dwelling place for God." I also am painfully aware that there are many renovations to be made in my heart. Stories that need to be challenged. Ly's that need to be replaced.John Flavel, (a 17th century puritan) said that the "greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God....Heart work is hard work indeed." The stories that we have been given resist the light of the gospel.As I mediated upon this coffee shop gathering I remembered one of my fellow learners saying, "yea, but you can't  change their minds about their stories." I agree, we simply cannot reprogram our own heart. We cannot re-boot anyone else's heart. In fact I'm not in charge of my own transformation. I am truly  in the Lord's hands. I am utterly and completely dependent upon My Father to accomplish the work in my heart.Oh, don't misunderstand me, I want it, I seek it, but the truth is I can't make it happen. God is forming and re-forming me in His image. I quicken to add that He does not come in univited. I must ask Him into my heart, I must continually seek His Presence, however, beyond that the Great physician is in control.I can hear the words of a song: "Change my heart O God; make it ever true. Change my heart, O God; may I be like you." Yes, I am ever asking Him to remove those stories that are not responsive to His Word. Removes those mutations of His Gospel that have cluttered my heart.Let me hear again Your Voice. So I can come to the altar, so I can come to your Word. I want to hear you above the sound of the stores that I've been told or may even have told myself. I want to hear you beyond the narrative of this world, I want to hear You and You Alone!Change my heart O God.... may I be like You!