If you took a bath with muddy water, do you think you would you get very clean?
I don’t want you to do this, but I am pretty sure that no matter how hard you tried, you could not clean yourself with a bathtub full of dirty water. You would actually be doing the opposite. The more you wiped with it, the dirtier you would make yourself!
Now, do you think anyone would want to do that?
Well, bathing with muddy water is something people do all the time. You must think I am crazy but let me ask you a question. When you make mistakes or bad choices, do you try to fix them by working more and trying harder to be better? Have you ever noticed that no matter how hard you try, you just keep making more and more mistakes?
Trying to make yourself do and be better is like bathing with muddy water. God does want you to always try your best and do your best, but He knows that without Him your best is like taking a muddy bath. You will never get clean on your own. You just don’t have what you need, and the harder you try without God, well, the dirtier you will get.
The Bible says Jesus is the only one who can make you clean! I am not talking about having a clean body anymore, but Jesus wants to give you a clean heart. When King David was feeling really dirty from some things he had done wrong, he wrote this prayer to God: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).
There are times when your heart becomes dirty with things like anger, jealousy, negativity, or dishonesty. These things are sinful and the only person that can clean you up from them is God! God wants to bathe you in His love and His grace. His love is like the cleanest water you’ll ever bathe in!
Dear God, I can’t take away all my sins on my own. Please wash me clean—as white as snow! Make my heart clean today. In Jesus’s name, amen.