Tag: Are You In Need of Cleansing?

¹⁸ Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. ~ Micah 7:18^ESV

There are those who look at the Bible and say that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament can’t be the same God. They say the God of the Old Testament is a God of blood and war, while the God of the New Testament is a God of peace and love. But they look with veiled eyes. From before man ever sinned, God formed a plan for our redemption. Before the earth was formed and the heavens were stretched out, God was prepared to die for His creation.

There was a time before the Law when evil reigned freely; then, out of His mercy, God gave us the Law. The Law was a shadow of the good things to come, but He knew that the World wasn’t ready for those good things yet, so He only gave us a glimpse. Then 2000 years ago, at the perfect time, God got off of His Throne, set aside His Godliness, and took the form of a man to save the very people that were going to kill Him. God didn’t change; humanity did. We became more and more evil. We ran farther and farther away from Him. We dove deeper and deeper into darkness until our hearts grew so hard that God couldn’t even reach us.

God’s love for us is unlike anything we can ever understand or comprehend. When we look at God, we look at Him how we want to look at Him. Some see Him as an evil, malevolent dictator. Others as a white-bearded old man in the sky. Others see Him as a fairy tale for children. We’re blinded by our own perceptions and biases of who God is.

God is love. That doesn’t mean He won’t bring judgment or punishment. It means that He will do everything He can to redeem you from punishment, except take away your free will to accept it. If you want to know who God truly is, it all starts with seeking Him. Those who seek Him will find Him when they seek Him with all of their heart.

LORD God, please forgive me for looking at You through tainted eyes. Please erase the false narrative I have created for You and replace it with who You are. Show me Your love that I might in return love You, for we don’t love first, but we love because You first loved us. Help me to love You the way You deserve. Please guide me as I run the race You have set before me. Please help me to live my life for You so that others may see You in me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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¹⁴ For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, ¹⁵ but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ~ Matthew 6:14-15^ESV

Sometimes it’s easy to say that this only has one meaning, forgive all people who have done you wrong. But what if that’s not the only purpose of this verse? When we sin, we are hurting ourselves. In fact, Paul even said in his letter to the Corinthians that the sin of sexual immorality is a sin against one’s own body.

Here’s what I’m getting at, if you can’t forgive yourself, how can God forgive you? There’re things in our past that we feel are too horrible for God to forgive. Sometimes we completely run the other direction away from God because we don’t feel good enough to be forgiven. Sometimes we come to God, but we don’t give Him everything, and the past just eats us up inside. According to Jesus, both of these lead to the same place. When we can’t forgive ourselves, we are now, in a sense, rejecting God’s forgiveness because we are now saying we know better than God. We’re saying that His blood can’t wash us clean. We’re saying He’s not all-powerful. We’re saying He’s not enough for us. We don’t mean to say these things but refusing to forgive ourselves is just that. It’s putting your past regrets above God’s love.

No one’s too dirty to be cleaned. No one’s too wretched to receive grace. And no one’s too wicked to be forgiven. God Almighty formed you in your mother’s womb. He knows everything about you, including the number of hairs on your head. He has a great plan for your life. Don’t let your past regrets keep you from the future He has planned for you.

Dear Heavenly Father, please forgive me for not forgiving myself. Please lift this heavy burden of shame and regret from my shoulders. Please show me who you see when you look at me. Show me who I am in You. Help me to not just know Scriptures of redemption and love but help me to believe them and put them into action. Help me to see and live in Your good and perfect will. In the name of Jesus, I pray, amen.

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²⁰ They speak against You with malicious intent; Your enemies take Your name in vain. ~ Psalms 139:20

As Christians, we don’t see ourselves as people who take the LORD’s name in vain, but what if we did and we didn’t even realize it? When bad things happen to us, do we blame God? Do we accuse God of not being there for us or causing our tribulation or temptation? These are all ways that we take His name in vain. If we say God has done something, then are we not using His name? And if that is using His name, then wouldn’t saying God has done something He has not done be taking His name in vain?

We’ve all blamed God for something that has gone wrong in our life or maybe a temptation that feels too strong for us to overcome, but we don’t have to feel shame or condemnation. Our God holds no condemnation for those who humble themselves before Him and change their ways. This offense isn’t too painful for God to forgive. He’s waiting for you to repent that He might take you to the next level.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Correctly Use His Name.

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¹³ But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, ¹⁴ for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” ~ Ephesians 5:13-14

Sin thrives in darkness. That’s where it grows and multiplies. The darkness is its home. In order to remove or overcome sin, we have to place it in the light at the feet of Jesus. In other words, we have to pray about it. We can’t keep trying to battle it on our own because we’ll get nowhere. We can’t overcome on our own, and the sad part is, deep down, we all know it.

We all know that we can’t overcome our sin on our own, yet we are determined to try to keep it from God and do it on our own. Why? Could it be because we don’t truly wanna let it go? Darkness, oftentimes, is like false security. For whatever reason, when we’re afraid at night, we feel safer under the covers in our bed. Yet that isn’t providing any actual safety. That’s what the darkness is for us. We know that pretending our sin isn’t there or ‘trying’ to clean ourselves alone isn’t going to actually set us free, yet we still do it for the false sense of security. We’ve become like vampires.

Imagine this; vampires are literally the walking dead that avoid the sun because it burns them, so they hide from it. What if they avoid the sun because it’s killing the dead in them so that they might live again. But they avoid it because it hurts to go through. That’s how the darkness and sin keep us trapped. It lies to us, telling us that we can either overcome it on our own or hide it from God so that we never venture into the light. Then it tells us that we’ll die if we go into the light. If we bring this before the LORD, it’ll be a rough road like never before. It’ll be like one going through withdrawals, and even if you make it, no one will ever accept that you’ve changed. They’ll never see you for anything other than your past; you’ll still be dead to them.

But the Devil is a liar. Yes, walking into the light won’t be easy. Overcoming sin is a daily struggle that some days feels like more than you can take, but with each moment you stay in the light of Jesus, the more the dead person that you once were, burns off and the new person God is molding you into shines through. It’s not gonna be easy, and it won’t happen overnight, but hold on to God, and you will overcome through Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Burn Off Your Dead Man.

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¹² For the Lord corrects those He loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. ~ Proverbs 3:12

Correction is a process that the majority of us don’t look forward to. We don’t like to know that we’re doing something wrong, especially if it’s something we like. It feels almost like a personal attack when we’re corrected, but then we miss why we’re being corrected. I’ve heard so many people that say, ‘If you’re not God and this isn’t Judgment Day, you have no right to judge me.’ Like the majority of people, I’m not a fan of correction, but I’d much rather know that I’m doing something wrong so I can correct it before Judgment Day comes when it’ll be too late to do anything about it.

Something that we have to understand is that correction isn’t a personal attack on the person getting corrected; it’s a chance given to us to better ourselves before it’s too late. What if someone is correcting us out of hate instead of love? Don’t let someone’s delivery stop you from growing. If someone corrects you accurately, but they do it hatefully, let God deal with their delivery, and you worry about you. That’s not an easy task, but it is a possible one. The moment we stop worrying about our own pride is the moment that other people’s words and judgments won’t tear us down. When we change our focus to God instead of ourselves, these minimal issues don’t seem so big.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Humble Yourself Before Judgment Day.

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⁵ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. ~ Jeremiah 7:5-7

First things first. God wants us all to change. But to change for the better. He wants us to be just and fair. Not mean and stingy. Not just to our loved ones, but even to the stranger who isn’t like us. He wants us to show no partiality.

As Christians, we don’t focus on race, ethnicity, nationality, political views, religious views, or anything else that the world tries to divide us with. We love because He first loved us and taught us how to live and love. He told us, do not shed innocent blood (which includes sacrificing our own children), and do not follow other gods (knowingly or unknowingly).

What I mean is this: do not participate in things that are used in the worship of other gods, such as abortion (which is child sacrifice) and yoga (which is synonymous with Eastern religious worship), whether some people accept it or not.

God said, if you do these things (love all people) and keep away from the others (sin and temptation), you will live in His promise. So, I ask you, do you want to live in God’s promises? Of course you do. We all do.

If so, then, today, make a commitment to live in obedience and stay away from rebellion and blatant sin. Dear heavenly Father, I come in reverence seeking Your face and calling upon Your Name. Please forgive me and help me to live my life according to Your great expectations You have made. Thank You, LORD Jesus, for it is in Your name we pray, amen.

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²² Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord in the hope that He may forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. ~ Acts 8:22^NIV

Ever heard of the saying, it’s the thought that counts? Well, in this case, when the thinker doesn’t act upon his evil thought, and he doesn’t even allow it to escape his lips. The thought that he allows himself to ponder and build a fantasy from is a transgression against God.

Now, when a thought enters your mind in the form of a temptation, cast it down. Don’t let evil thoughts give birth in your mind. Don’t let temptation infiltrate your imagination. All of our actions stem from our thoughts, so we must control them. We must bring them into submission because our thoughts don’t control us; we control our thoughts.

The LORD, our God, won’t hold anyone guiltless that is consumed by their thoughts. Why? Because it’s a matter of the heart. God wants a pure heart and clean hands so that we might not be a slave to the world. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, for where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is freedom.

Dear heavenly Father, forgive me from my ungodly thoughts and help me to have pure, holy thoughts. Thoughts of love and kindness. Thank You for cleansing me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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⁵ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. ~ Jeremiah 7:5-7^NIV

God said, if we change our ways, deal justly with each other, and do not oppress the foreigner, fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood. That includes aborting or babies. Abortion is shedding innocent blood.

Stay away from other gods. Anything you put before Almighty God is an idol. Be careful of whom you serve. If we do all of these things and stay away from the other gods, then God will bless us and increase us.

Take an inventory of your life and make sure it is within the parameters God has set. Make sure you set nothing before the LORD God Almighty. No person, object, false god, or even yourself. We have to make sure we don’t allow ourselves to fall into the lies that the world is selling us. These are the last days; Jesus is coming back real soon. Are you ready for His return?

Father, forgive me for drifting. Forgive me for putting work, family, and the internet and social media above You. Help me to live for You. Help me to love You with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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⁵ One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” ~ John 5:5-6^ESV

Okay, let’s set the scene here. A feast is being celebrated right now. Everyone should be in a joyful mood—lots of celebrating and food. Family and friends are all around. Yet Jesus is walking through the colonnade, looking at all the sick people lying around waiting to be healed. There was a multitude of invalids, the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed.

He’s looking at each one. Inspecting. He’s trying to find something or someone. Then He singles out one guy in particular. This man has been an invalid for thirty-eight years, and Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be healed?”

Right away, the man begins making excuses. I have no one to help me. I can’t get into the water. But that is not what Jesus asked. Jesus’ question was, “Do you want to be healed?”

It’s either yes or no. Sometimes that is how we act. Jesus is saying, “Do you want to be free?” And we find every excuse not to. I’ve done too much wrong. I’ve never been to church. I don’t know how to pray.

But just as that wasn’t what Jesus was asking the sick man 2000 years ago, that’s not what He’s asking us today. Jesus already did the heavy lifting. He already presented the offering, paid the debt, and made the path for us. Jesus is simply asking, do you want to accept the Salvation I am giving you freely? Do you want freedom from your sin? If you do, pray this prayer, and the LORD will forgive you of your sins and forgive you of all unrighteousness.

Dear LORD God, please forgive me of my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Please give me a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone that I might love You and Your law. Please renew a right spirit in me that I might be able to follow the path You have set out for me. Please free me from all of my fears and strongholds. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

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⁵ For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations. ~ Psalms 100:5^KJV

The LORD is a God of mercy, grace, love, and truth. He does not change, even though the world around Him does. The world will try to convince you that it is socially evolving and becoming more open-minded and less prejudiced. It will try to convince you that all change is progress in the right direction, but there are some things that don’t change for us. There are some things that remain a sin. There are some lines that we must not cross that remain a boundary for each and every generation because it is evil and destructive.

The world may try to convince you that it’s okay to indulge in whatever makes you feel good, but always remember that it’s not the world that has our best interest at heart; it’s God. For it was God who died for us so that we might be saved and freed from the restraints of the world, which lead to death and destruction. This New Year, examine who you have become and make sure it lines us with the truth that endures through each and every generation.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Dwell in His Truth.

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