by Dona Hake
A few days ago I had shared with you regarding resolutions for the upcoming New Year. As I said, when you go into a New Year you can feel like you are wiping the slate clean. A year has passed and now it is time to start a fresh one. Sometimes people may feel like they really had a bad year full of challenges, and they are just ready to start fresh. Again, may I mention that I personally feel this is something we should do everyday. As we live one day at a time, we can start afresh, thanking Him for His new mercies, His grace that will sustain us, and His provision that He promises to give us to help us do His will. Most importantly is His forgiveness when we miss the mark. Isn’t it precious that even when we mess up, all we have to do is ask Him to cleanse us, and get us right back up and running the course that He has set before us!!!
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and
renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me..”
Psalm 51:10
renew a right, persevering, and steadfast spirit within me..”
Psalm 51:10
As the psalmist prayed here you can see he plainly realized that he had lost something, and he wanted it back. He was walking in the blessing of feeling right, he was a persevering person with a spirit that was steadfast, yet he knew something was wrong. He was no longer clean and pure. When we mess up and do not ask the Lord to help us, things are not the same. The longer we put it off the more we will become callous to our spirit trying to let us know that something is not right within us.
I have shared this little teaching analogy before but it will serve to minister to your heart again since we are looking at cleansing and renewal. I can still remember when I shared with some preschoolers a simple little object lesson about forgiveness. It was precious watching their innocent little faces and their eyes light up as they took hold of the truth. I was teaching them the importance of knowing their hearts were clean. I mixed up a big old batch of mud. I took them all outside and we sat down around the bowl of mud. I squished my hands into the mud (may I add the little boys were loving how gross it was!) and rubbed it up and down my arms and my hands were caked with mud. I emphasized to them how bad it felt not to be clean, and I just wanted it off of me.
I shared with them that the mud was symbolic of our mistakes, our sins, etc. I had a pitcher of fresh, clean water beside me. As I poured the pure, clean water over me, the mud totally cleansed my arms and hands, and into the ground the mud was absorbed. “Where is the mud?” I asked them, and the point was made beautifully. It could not be seen anymore and it was gone! These kind of visual analogies are so powerful, not just for children but adults as well.
Psalm 51:2-3 Amplified
“Wash me thoroughly [and repeatedly] from my iniquity and guilt and cleanse me and make me wholly pure from my sin! For I am conscious of my transgressions and
I acknowledge them; my sin is ever before me.”
There are two key words here that the writer wrote and these are our keys to living with a clean heart and those words are CONSCIOUS and ACKNOWLEDGE. It is plain and simple, as we stay conscious of the condition of our hearts and we acknowledge it before God, He will always help us, and work within us and renew us again. Let us be quick to humble and repent when we are out of align with His perfect will. We serve a merciful and loving God. Think about anything that has hindered your steadfastness and strength in Him and ask Him to cleanse it so your heart pure and totally restored. This is truly freedom!