I Want to be Clean

Have you ever been so dirty that you wondered if you would ever get clean, or had to do a very dirty job that was really dirty and it just made you feel filthy?  There are times in our life that these things happen to us that are unexpected and we just have to deal with it.  There are jobs that are not pleasant to deal with, like being a plumber and unplugging a sewer line, or being a nurse and cleaning up after a patient has an accident or really cleaning up someone who has had a bad accident and is bruised and bleeding.  These are not pleasant clean-up jobs but have to be done.

Then there is another kind of clean-up that we all need, clean up from sin and that is the best clean up that we can ever have done and I want to be clean, don't you.  Let's see what the Bible has to say about getting clean and staying clean. I know there has to be promises concerning this and I want to know what they are because I need His cleansing power in my life.

Jeremiah 33:8  "I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me."

1 John 1:7,9  "But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

These two promises are for us, for me that I might be cleansed from ALL my sins and stand before Him just as if I had never sinned which is what justification means when the Bible says we are justified by faith,  He has promised to cleanse us if we confess them to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us and I need forgiven, how about you?  I want to be clean more than anything else.  It is important for us to realized that Jesus sacrifice on the cross and the blood He shed there was for the cleansing of our sins and making us clean before Him.  We must accept this sacrifice that He made for you and me.

Ephesians 5:25-27  "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish."

This promise is for His church and His people and the way we are washed clean is through studying His Word, as we are doing now that He might present us as a glorious church and people to His Father.  Just take time each morning or sometime during the day, mornings are best for me, because my mind is clear and I am able to concentrate better.  But take time to read some portion of His word and contemplate on it, but first ask God to show you what you need to read and then apply it to your life and ask Him also to help you live what you are studying.  Following are two prayers of David that I like to say are my prayers.

Psalms 19:12-14  "Who can understand his errors?  Cleanse me from secret faults.  Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins, Let them not have dominion over me, Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression.  Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer."

Do you have secret faults that need forgiven or are you in the habit of sinning presumptuously?  Presumptuous sins are those sins that we know are wrong to do, but do them anyway thinking that God is so good He won't hold me accountable for this.  That is a presumptuous sin.  So we need to ask God to help us not to sin presumptuously, to hold us back from doing it.

Psalms 51:1,2,3  "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness, according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.  For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me."

This prayer of David was after he committed the terrible act of adultery and murder, and he was humbled by his sin and confessed it before God and I like the phrase 'according to your loving kindness, and tender mercies'.  God is always willing to hear our confessions and to forgive us of ALL our sins.  He is a merciful and faithful God, isn't He?  David wanted to be washed thoroughly from his sin and we need to be the same, wanting to be washed thoroughly from our sins.  He is willing to forgive, are you willing to confess?  That's all it takes to be clean and I want to be clean.

I hope you have been blessed by this little study on being washed clean.  I have and it is my desire to be clean all the way through, everything.  I hope it is your desire also.  Grandma Joan