A Clean Heart

On September 18, 2024 By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

During the pandemic, everyone that I knew was concerned about clean hands. Sanitizer could not be found unless you wanted to pay a scalper’s high price. Even soap that is anti-bacterial was hard to find. People were busily cleaning their hands, but what about their hearts. You don’t even need to go to the store to get any cleaning products to have a clean heart. You just have to confess your sins to God, repent and ask for forgiveness and He will forgive you. I like what the devotional says that when we seek God, we will find that He has already been seeking us. So, don’t stay in your sin…confess, repent, ask and accept the free gift that God has provided.

Want a Clean Heart?

King David made some great decisions, but he also made some terrible ones. He had an affair with a woman named Bathsheba, for example, and attempted to conceal the secret by arranging the murder of her husband.

For someone who was considered “a man after God’s own heart,” David really messed up. And yet, we know from Scripture that David confessed his sin against the Lord (2 Samuel‬ ‭12‬:‭13‬) and can read about how he prayed for mercy in Psalm 51:

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭51‬:‭10‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If you’ve ever messed up, you’re in good company. Paul, the author behind much of the New Testament, writes in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Paul wasn’t always a man who followed God’s own heart, either—in fact, early in his life, he killed people who followed Jesus.

God did not abandon Paul. He did not exclude David. And He will not forsake you, either! God does not leave us to ourselves or our pasts, nor does He give us what we fully deserve. Instead, He put on skin and took our place. Jesus became the perfect and ultimate sacrifice for our sin—once and for all. He loves us, despite what we may have done!

If you’re longing for a second chance or craving a relationship with the one true God, but aren’t sure where to start, try borrowing some of David’s words. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

When we seek God, we realize that He’s already been seeking us.

God is faithful. He is who He says He is and He will do what He says He’ll do. He is your merciful Savior, He forgives your sins, and He not only makes your heart clean, but He also makes you a brand new creation.

Christ Blazed the Trail

On January 21, 2024 By vickleaIn Scripture, YouVersion App2 Comments

www.bible.com/reading-plans/13828/day/16

There’s something to be said for scripture verses that consistently point out that Christ went ahead of us and died for us so that we don’t have to pay the price of our sins. I like how this devotional gives me a mental image of Christ in a deep woods (representing sin to me) and He is blazing a trail through. When we get off the trail, then we fall, have to pick ourselves up and repent and then move forward, back on the trail again. The biggest encouragement is that Jesus doesn’t abandon us and give up on us…we just have to stay the course and look for the trail!

Choice or Requirement

On August 21, 2023August 20, 2023 By vickleaIn Scripture2 Comments

We make choices every day, starting from the moment we open our eyes in the morning until we close them to go to sleep at night. Think about it. You choose to praise God for a new day before your feet hit the ground, or you choose to get out of bed grumbling because it’s a new day. You choose to have a devotional time with God or you choose to sleep later and rush around and out the door with a quick acknowledgement that He is there whenever you call out to Him. And so it goes all day long. How do I know this? Because I, too, have made wrong choices and had to turn around, confess and start again making right ones. But one choice that I made many years ago was absolutely the right one and I never have turned from it.

I like the wording of this verse, especially the word “refuse.” That shows a choice to me…it is up to me daily, all day, every day, to take up the cross and to follow Jesus where He leads me. Only in constantly and consistently making that choice am I considered worthy of being His child. He does not insist, require or punish me when I refuse…He just lays out the truth of the consequences. The choice is clear for everyone, sinner and saint. Accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior is just the beginning of our way to the cross. We need to daily commit ourselves to following Him and then do it. God is always there to pick up the pieces, comfort and forgive me when I fail, but it is up to me to make the right choice to begin with. The choice is up to each of us, individually and daily. God is waiting for us to make the right choice, so let’s try very hard not to disappoint Him.

Is God Silent?

On July 21, 2023 By vickleaIn Scripture1 Comment

The answer to my question is a resounding “no”! But sometimes, in the light of the daily headlines and the evil we see all around us, I wonder why God is holding back His judgment. Then He speaks quietly into my heart that He is watching and waiting for more to turn to Him.

Habakkuk was a very bold prayer warrior, not hesitating to ask God if he is being silent and knowing that God cannot stand the sight of evil. I have to wonder what Habakkuk would say about the evil that is rampant today? Is one generation’s evil worse than another’s? I think not. Evil is evil. Sin is sin. And God will not just watch us self-destruct forever. He has sent us as His messengers to warn the world of the judgment to come. They scoff and do not seem to listen, but God works on hearts. That is the thing…But, God…He is not winking or silent. He is pure and holy and will not withhold His righteous judgment forever. Man sins and laughs in God’s face. God doesn’t strut around and say, “Gotcha.” I think He is sad for our world and its desperate trust in the worldly powers. I know that I am sad each time I read a new headline glorifying sin. God, who sent His Only Son into the world to save us, must be heartbroken over mankind’s choices. But, He is not silent. He is working in the background to draw people to Him so that as many as possible may be saved before His wrath begins. But God…

Out of the Land of Egypt

On May 13, 2023 By vickleaIn Scripture3 Comments

I have been praying a lot lately about the circumstances in our nation and all of the rampant sin. This morning, in my devotional, God directed me to this verse. Egypt represents the sin that God took us out of, the salvation He freely offers to all through His Son Jesus Christ. But instead of moving forward with God, our nation as a whole has turned from God. We are worshipping other gods: money, technology, success, pleasure and self. So when we look around and see all of the problems in the United States, it is because we have sinned and have refused to repent. I, personally, do not think that God will be mocked forever and I am waiting for Him to act. I don’t know when that will be, but I do know that we need to repent and get out of Egypt and back to the Promised Land of hope, restoration and forgiveness.

Return to God

On February 22, 2023 By vickleaIn Scripture3 Comments

One of the things that I most enjoy doing is going on short trips, enjoying my time in a new place and then returning home to all that is safe and familiar. I like visiting others, but I really like being at home, with my comforting things all around me. To put that in a spiritual perspective, God cries out to us constantly to return to Him. There are so many who wander from place to place seeking some kind of peace and acceptance from the world. But the only real peace and acceptance comes from our Father who has created us and knows what is best for us.

God wants to show us mercy and compassion. His desire is not to punish us. I have been asked by non-Christians how a loving God could send people to hell. My answer is always the same. He did not create hell for people. It was created for Satan and his demons. But if man chooses to go the way of sin and turns away from God, refusing to repent, then God has no choice but to allow them to go to hell. It is man’s choice, not God’s. In the book of Joel, God is crying out for His people, all those whom He has created, to repent and turn to Him, to change their hearts. God’s cry is not one of vengeance or waiting for us to mess up so He can punish us. His cry is a heartfelt one of sincerely desiring us to change so that we don’t have to suffer eternal punishment and separation from Him. God provided a way to be with Him always through His Son Jesus Christ, but it up to us to return to God. Just as we find comfort when we are among our familiar things at home, we can find comfort in the arms of our Heavenly Father who made a way for us to return to Him.

May you have a blessed and peaceful Ash Wednesday as you ponder the sacrifice of the Lord and the eternity with Him that is granted by His sacrifice. If you need to do so, may you return to God!

Returning to God

On July 21, 2022 By vickleaIn Scripture4 Comments

There is a lot of talk these days about a coming revival and the hope that it will bring to a spiritually starved America. However, as in the days of Hosea, I don’t see revival on the horizon. Instead, I see God’s justice which leads to His judgment. We as a nation have turned our backs on God, angrily declaring that we can take care of ourselves and don’t need Him any longer. Of course, those of us who are believers in His grace and mercy and love know that we need Him in our lives daily. But the verse that stood out to me as I read Hosea this morning does much to explain the spiritual condition of our nation.

When what you are doing is so awful that you don’t want to even acknowledge it as sin, then you are not prone to turn to God, but rather away from Him. When the House passed a bill yesterday to establish same-sex marriage as legal in all the states, where was the outrage against their actions? I do believe that interracial marriage is sanctified, but I also believe that same-sex marriage is a sin. Our lawmakers want to “normalize” this sinful act and force us to accept it. They cannot acknowledge God as Lord and justify such an action. The spirit of prostitution that Hosea refers to seems to me to be rampant in the U.S. today, I’m sad to say. The lawmakers have sold themselves to the highest bidder, otherwise known as lobbyists. The voters have sold themselves to the lawmakers who promise them more freedom at the cost of their future legacy for their children. I’m saddened by the state of our nation, but I am not surprised. We got on this slippery slope decades ago and the ride is carrying us faster and faster to the promise of hell, not Heaven.

Am I totally distraught about this whole mess that our nation is in? No, because I have read the end of the Book and we win! It’s just the part of the book in which we are now that I’m not liking because I want God to come swiftly with judgment, but I also want Him to continue His mercy and grace for just a while longer so more can come to know Him. I trust that His way and timing are perfect, and as I see this nation slide farther into sin and debauchery, I cannot help but think that God is just, waiting and saying to His people that a time will come when every knee will bow to His sovereignty.

I hope that you have a blessed day, but remember to pray for our leaders. There are some (perhaps only a few) who are trying to stand strong in the face of great evil and they need our prayerful support.

Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner

Tag: repent