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Cleaning Shirts and Confessing

I read this devotion this morning and thought it was a pretty good one.

Have you ever tried getting a deep stain out of a crisp white business shirt?  You can try loading it into a washer and dumping some detergent into the water.  Then you just hope that when you take out the shirt following the spin cycle, PRESTO the stain is gone.

Only in commercials does that happen.

Fact is, with most stains, you have to confront the stain head-on with concentrated cleaning solution applied directly to the soiled spot. 

Same with confession.  You can't just throw a blanket "sorry for anything I might have done wrong this year God" into the general list of requests of the Almighty Father.  If you really are sorry for the stain you put on your relationship with God, you've got to get specific.  Localize.  Focus on what you did wrong, 'fess up, and ask for mercy in the name of Jesus Christ.

And then brandish your new, spotless relationship.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9



Isn't it great that God is so much more forgiving than many of us.  When we are wronged by someone we hold grudges, or want them to earn our forgiveness, or do something to make it up to us.  All God asks us to do is to confess our sins to Him and he will forgive us and wash us clean.  My prayer today is that I can be more forgiving and not as quick to pass judgment when I feel I have been wronged.

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