By Pastor W. F. Kumuyi

Christians need cleansing and grace from the Lord to live in this corrupt and polluted world. The psalmist’s plea: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting,” shows that until God illuminates our spirit and reveals our true nature, we do not fully know ourselves, our hearts or what God knows about us. Men like Judah and David never really saw themselves in the true light until God revealed some hidden and embarrassing truths about them. It was by such revelation that they were able to pray and receive cleansing from the Lord. You hardly know yourself sufficiently until the Lord turns His searchlight on you to reveal some secrets about your life.

The Psalmist asked: “Who can understand his errors?” and then added by way of supplication: “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” If David, the inspired writer of many of the Psalms, the one who received extraordinary anointing from Samuel, the prophet, killed Goliath and did many other exploits through unshakable faith in God could not understand his errors until God, by Prophet Nathan, showed it to him, who can? If a man with such a high profile needed to be cleansed from secret faults, we also need it.

The Scripture admonishes: “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” After receiving cleansing, you must resist the devil everywhere and every time he brings temptation your way to defile you.
God condemns, very clearly, the corruption of the heart. This was the reason He wiped out the generation at the time of Noah. “And Godsaw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” The state of things in the world has not changed from what it was in Noah’s time. People still find it harder to do well and much easier to do evil because of the corruptness of the human nature.

The Pharisees in Christ’s days, did not ceased to congregate in their Synagogue for worship, but “there is no fear of God before their eyes.” Judas Iscariot listened to all the sermons of Christ,but there was no fear of God in him. What we hear matters; however, what we allow God to do in our hearts after we have heard His word matters the most. No one will be able to act righteously until he has an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ and He cleanses and changes his heart.

Ideas, pictures and plans run through the mind every day and every time. Some of these are defiling and need to be shut out of the heart. But because sinners and careless Christians lack the power to lock the door against unclean thoughts and evil imaginations, it leads to corruption and hardness of their heart. This manifests in acts of adultery, fornication, violence, retaliation, pride, among others, and constitute a stain on the character that must be washed off. Those who condemn other people while they continue in the same sin risk the judgment of God if they fail to repent. Hardness of heart will not only lead to missing earthly blessings, but also to missing heaven eventually. The remedy is for sinners to humble themselves and be ready to repent of their sins, confess them to God and ask for cleansing in the blood of Jesus.

• Further reading (King James Version): Psalms 139:23,24; 19:12; Job 34:31,32; Isaiah 1:16-18; James 4:6-8. Genesis 6:5,6,11,12; Romans 3:9-18; Matthew 23:27-33; Romans 2:1-5,8,9; Jeremiah 5:3-7; Zechariah 7:11-13; Hebrews 3:12,13. 1 John 1:7-10; 2:1-6; Psalms 51:1-17; 24:3,4. Acts 24:16; Luke 19:8-10; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 1 Peter 3:15-17; 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12; Colossians 3:16,17,23; Philippians 4:8.