The Cleansed

“Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.” James 4:8-9
 
One of the first things a little boy learns from his mother is that clean hands are required to eat a healthy meal. Eating dirt and eating healthy are not on any mother’s menu. God’s meal plan for spiritual nutrition in The Book of James places a similar priority on being cleansed.
 
Showing up at my mother’s table for a meal was met with one question, “Did you wash your hands?” I became an expert at washing my palms. After all, they were the only side of my hands I intended to use to touch my food. My Mom wasn’t having any of it. She rejected my plan to utilize what I refused to sanitize. She sent me back to the sink for my hands to be cleansed, and totally sanitized before they were properly utilized at her table.
 
The Book of James reminds me of the difference between taking my suit to the cleaners and taking my hands to the sink or taking my body to the shower. Putting a clean suit over a dirty body is a short cut, but it won’t pass anyone’s smell test.
 
There is a huge difference between going to the cleaners and being cleansed. One impacts your clothes. The other transforms your character. Clothes don’t make the man. His heart does. When you go into your prayer closet, you aren’t looking for a clean suit. You are seeking a cleansed heart.
 
Note to Self: Your heart doesn’t need to go to the cleaners once in a while. The problem of the heart is sin. The heart of the problem is the problem of your heart. Your heart needs to be consistently, and constantly cleansed from sin.  Don’t try to take your heart to the cleaners. Take it to God to be cleansed.
 
Believing prayer is cleansing prayer. Prayer is not a trip to the cleaners, or a laundry list you place before God. Prayer initiates a heart transplant, and a blood transfusion for courageous living. Talk postpones the transplant. Prayer initiates the transformation.
 
Prayer is nothing to laugh about, and yet prayer is nothing to fear. When you pray, The Father gives you what you need, not what you want. Your tears are part of His cleansing process. Two things break God’s heart: Rebellion and Repentance. Let them break yours. When you pray, try tears. TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!
 
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9