Take this soul...

“10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.” (Psalm 51:10-12)

Return begins with knowing we will be accepted. David prays for a clean heart and a new, right, spirit in Psalm 51 because he *knows* that God will give it to him. The singer/speaker in the song “Yahweh” prays for change because (s)he is certain that God will help those changes happen. 

This is what amazes me more than anything else: before we're ready to return, God is waiting.  As Brennan Manning says in The Ragamuffin Gospel, the good news is that salvation precedes repentance.  Why repent if the promise of forgiveness is conditional.  Why offer our hearts, our voices, our souls, our lives...if we aren't sure God will receive them?  Fear of rejection is pretty high on the list of things we are afraid of, right?  We are hesitant to risk love if we aren't sure there will be a reciprocal feeling.  

I remember the night my wife said, "This will be so much easier if you just admit that you love me." (We were debating "ending" a seven year friendship for the sake of romance...we've been married for almost 14 years now.)  When she said that I knew that she loved me; I knew there would be no rejection.

If you want change in your inner being, ask God to begin making that change. But God won’t do it alone. You have to work for that change, too. God won’t put up road blocks to dead end streets, but God will whisper to you, “You don’t want to walk that road.” God will teach you how to use your hands for Kingdom work, but you have to make them available. God has shown us how to live a changed life, but we have to look at the example of Jesus, we have to open our ears to listen to the Word.

God will take our hearts, but only if we offer them.