For the in-between season when joy feels revoked and a willing spirit feels impossible.

You ask for a clean heart, but do you actually believe God is the kind of giver who re-creates what you have ruined?

You have been treating joy as the reward for a better you. You replay your failure until a willing spirit feels like something you must fabricate from nothing. Polishing your own resolve is a dead end.

What you cannot create, Christ purchased. At the cross, he was thrown from the Father's presence for you, so you never will be. The Holy Spirit who raised him is not taken from you; he remains the pledge of your continued belonging. Christ took your exile so the Spirit could uphold your willingness. Your willpower does not steady you; his interceding grip does, at the Father's right hand.

So will you stop polishing your resolve and simply ask the Mender to restore your torn joy?