Our need of cleansing (1)

As we approach the end of the year, it becomes necessary to take stock of our lives. We must not continue into the new year as we have done currently, assuming that everything is okay with us, when deep down, we know that we are not spiritually okay. Many people face life in this manner, and miss the very best that God has in store for them. But recognising the inconsistencies in our lives this year, the failings, the crashed dreams, the unfulfilled aspirations, the avoidable misadventures, should indicate our need of cleansing and grace from the Lord to live in this corrupt, polluted world.

The psalmist also saw the need in his life, hence he made a passionate plea to God: “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.” He realised 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 David do not usually see themselves in the true light until God reveals some hidden and embarrassing truths about them. It was by such revelation that David for one, was able to pray and receive cleansing from the Lord. You hardly know yourself sufficiently until the Lord turns His searchlight on you to reveal hidden secrets about your life.

“Who can understand his errors?,” the psalmist wondered, and added by way of supplication to God: “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 required cleansing from secret faults, we also need it. The Scripture admonishes us to, “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 and sternly, the corruption of the heart. This was the reason He wiped out the generation at the time of Noah. The state of things in the world has not changed from what it was in Noah’s time. People still find it hard to do well and much easier to do evil, because of the depravity of the human nature.

The religious people in Christ’s time, like the Pharisees, did not cease 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.

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. These manifest in acts of adultery, fornication, violence, retaliation and pride, among others. These and many other vices constitute a stain on the character that must be washed off. More so, those who condemn other people while they continue in the same sin risk the judgment of God if they fail to repent.

• 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.