Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isaiah 1:18 KJV
When I get up in the morning, I wash my face so that I will be alert and clean. There are many times during the day when I have to wash it again because I get hot and it refreshes me. So it is with Jesus. When we pray the sinner’s prayer and ask Him to forgive us and wash us in His atoning blood, He cleanses us from all sin. However, because of living in a world that is sinful and corrupt, our hearts sometimes become filled with unforgiveness, resentment, bitterness, jealousy, sarcasm and criticism.
We must go to Jesus every day, sometimes every hour and sometimes every five minutes, and ask Him to please forgive us and to please refresh our hearts and our minds with His forgiveness, understanding, grace and mercy. He asks us to reason together. He loves us so much that He is understanding and compassionate when we go to Him. However, He will not tolerate sin. Even though we fail Him and hurt Him, He will never stop loving us.
Oh that we would be more like Jesus in our relationships with our spouses, our children, our parents, our siblings and with our loved ones! How can we expect a Holy God to forgive our sins and failures when we aren’t willing to forgive those who hurt us and fail us? We don’t have any right to ask for forgiveness if we aren’t willing to first forgive those who hurt us.
Indeed, it is very arrogant for us to ask Him to forgive us unless we have first forgiven those who have hurt us. Also, we must ask those that we have hurt to forgive us before we go into the presence of our Heavenly Father. It is a privilege and honor to pray and ask Him for anything and we should stop treating it like it is something that we deserve. None of us deserves to be forgiven. It is only through the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross and His atoning cleansing blood that we are able to enter into the presence of our Heavenly Father.
I think He is saying to us, “Why do you continue to go places, watch things, say things, read things and do things that you know hurt Me and also hurts your witness for Me? You know that I don’t want you to do these things but yet you continue to do them. Don’t you love Me?” How sad that we allow satan and the temptations of the world to enter our minds and hearts and thereby hurt Jesus and make Him unhappy. He does so much for us; can’t we do things to make Him happy? I believe it hurts our Heavenly Father when He sees the way we treat His Son.
Red and white are my favorite colors. Red because it represents the blood of Jesus and white because it represents our sins that have been forgiven and washed in the precious atoning blood of the Lamb. I do not like black at all because every time I see black it reminds me of the darkness and ugliness of our sins.
Have you been washed in the cleansing blood of Jesus? If not, I urge you to do so right now. If you have allowed the temptations of the world and satan to fill your heart and mind with things that bring shame and reproach to our wonderful Saviour, go to Him and ask Him to forgive you and to please refresh your heart with His washrag of love, mercy, grace and understanding.