Devotional

Devotionals Archive

A Thorough Cleaning

Oct 21, 2020

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. – Psalm 51:2

Spray, spray, scrub, scrub. On my knees I worked, trying to get the stains out of my carpet. Some were new; some had
been there for months. I could not stand it any longer! With a little prayer and a lot of scrubbing, the carpet finally looked much better. Whew! What
a relief. I had worked on some of those old stains before, but without success. This time I was able to get rid of them. However, I knew that my carpet
still was not truly clean. Some spots were gone, but even so, it needed an overall cleaning—something deeper than just a vacuum or a little spray
could do. Nonetheless, for the time being, I was content with the improvement I had made.

Little did I know how short-lived my victory would be! That very evening our dog evaded my husband as he tried to settle her down for the night. The same
pooch who was responsible for many of the spots I had just scrubbed came running into the house with muddy paws! Oh, my poor carpet! Thankfully, it
did not do as much damage as I feared at first.

This little scenario reminded me of how “sin spots” can make a terrible mess of the soul. No matter how hard a person may “scrub,” trying to get rid of
filthy habits and wrongdoings, the soul never becomes truly clean. Even if the person is able to remove a few of those habits, he can never conquer
them all. And how often resolve fails, and once again the same old spots show up as before.

How thankful I am that there is hope for the sin-stained soul! The precious Blood of Jesus can cleanse our souls and make our hearts brand new! Our Lord
is thorough, leaving no spot, no stain, and no dirt. He also has power to help us keep our hearts clean if we will obey His Word. All we must do is
ask, and He will take away all the sin in our lives. How clean we feel when He is done!