Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Psalm 51:7-10
Wow – what a powerful message from David on repentance, salvation, and forgiveness. I know I struggle every hour of every day, every hour, with the temptations of sin. Don’t we all? Sins can be very different but they are the same in the fact that when we sin, we go against God’s wishes for us and we harm our personal relationship with Him.
But our God is a loving God and wants us to be in a good and right relationship. What a joy it is to know that when we accept Jesus Christ, we know that we will always be forgiven –we just have to ask for it! I especially like verse 10 of this passage, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. What a beautiful example of how to ask.
When we truly repent, we make a pact with God to try and change our behavior. I know the Holy Spirit is there to keep me in check, but it is up to me to make that change. Constantly engaging in the same bad habits and then asking for forgiveness over and over kind of defeats the purpose. It just doesn’t work that way!
As God has blessed us with the gift of forgiveness, we as Christians should offer the same gift to those who sin against us. I think that the act of forgiveness can be as healing as being forgiven. By forgiving someone, we are cleansing our own heart of the anger and ill will we feel toward that person. Just as we know that God will forgive us, we must always be willing to forgive others.
Dear Lord, thank you for the powerful gift of forgiveness. I pray for you to truly and deeply, cleanse me of my sin and to sustain in me a steadfast spirit of faithfulness. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
