Come Clean

James 4:⁸ “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (NRSV, emphasis added)

What comes to your mind when you think about God? Someone said, ‘What comes to mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.’ So, what comes to your mind when you think about God? Think about it because that is the most important thing about you, it is so important that it actually defines you. Do you see a God that is angry and just wants to get back at you? Or do you see a God that is insatiable, or you are not even sure if God exists? God is not what we make Him out to be, we are who God makes us out to be. God is not a figment of our imagination or the work of our hands, it is we who are the works of His hands. And God is challenging you and I to take bold steps towards Him.

Today’s scripture shows that you are as close to God as you want to be. When you come close to God, He will come close to you. However, we also see that sin and double mindedness can be a challenge to drawing near to God. When you take out the issue of sin and double mindedness, you are on your way to intimacy with God. Therefore, for you to take bold steps towards God, Righteousness and Single-mindedness have to be in place. What is righteousness? Someone defines righteousness as being in right standing with God. Right standing, meaning when you come into the presence of God, there are no issues between you and God. So, how do we get to a place where there are no issues between us and God? How do we actually become righteous?

Is it by obeying fifty rules or is it by praying seventeen times a day? Can we become righteous by the dos and don’ts that no one can actually fulfil? In fact, the Word of God says that the best of our righteousness is like filthy rags before God (Isa.64:6). The best of our righteousness means, when man has done his best and he stands before the holiness of God, that best actually looks like filthy rags. How then do we get to a place where we are in the presence of the Living God, the Most Holy God, and we are without guilt, without shame, and we are pure and righteous in His sight? How do we attain that spotlessness before the eyes of the Living God? The answer is nothing but the Blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the Blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the Blood of Jesus.

That is why it is important to answer the question; Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing pow’r? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you washed in the blood, In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? 1 Jn.1:⁷ “But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.”

Prayer: Father, I draw near to You, wash me in the Blood of Jesus, in Jesus Name. Amen!