Wiped Clean (Friday Devotional)

 

If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

- 1 John 1:9

On the wall of our kitchen, Lindsey and I have a whiteboard calendar on which we keep track of meetings, appointments, and events for the month. As the month progresses, the whiteboard gets filled with more and more things written in dry-erase marker until finally, at month’s end, there is more black ink on the board than there is white space. The filled-in whiteboard is a monthly testament to our family’s busy schedule.

So it’s always a relief when the calendar flips to the next month and it’s time to wipe the whiteboard clean. Suddenly all that came before—the frantic shuffling from place to place, the Sundays with back-to-back meetings, the late nights preparing for upcoming events—is relegated permanently to the past, perhaps not forgotten but no longer relevant to today. More busy days will come, to be sure—but yesterday’s stress is wiped away.

The Bible talks about forgiveness in similar terms. When we confess our sins to God, not only is He faithful to allow us to continue in relationship with Him, but He also cleanses us, casting our sins “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Forgiveness is a true fresh start.

Like that whiteboard in our kitchen, the ledger of your sins is unlikely to stay empty permanently—we all like sheep have gone astray; all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But in Christ you can be assured that God stands ready to forgive you when you come to Him in repentance. There may be blackness on your heart, but thanks to the cross, God can wipe it away.