But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from everything we’ve done wrong. 1 John 1:9 CEB
When my children were small they loved to dig in the back yard. They would add water to the dirt and pat the mud into “cakes.” At the end of the day they desperately needed a bath. Often their knees had brown dried, cracked mud on them. Their hands and arms were discolored from digging. Their was soil between their bare toes. They were too filthy to come inside so I would rinse them off outside. Eventually I noticed the creases of skin and hidden places where dirt stuck to sweat and their skin took on a grey color. We called it permadirt, (permanent dirt.) Only thorough and repeated scrubbings removed it.
As I have struggled with particular sins for a long time—grumbling, giving in to a quick temper—I sometimes feel like I am covered with permadirt. I chide myself for lack of progress in overcoming these unkind attitudes. I feel they characterize me.
But the verse today reminds us that sincere confessions are followed by cleansing. There is no limit on how many times I can be forgiven, because Jesus did it once for all on the cross. Furthermore, I’m scrubbed clean. God does not look at me, check behind my ears, under my chin and see permadirt.
PRAYER
Lord God, I thank you that you both forgive and cleanse me. You do not see me as soiled or defiled, and I should not see myself that way either. Amen.
