Clean hands pure heart verse4/22/2024 ![]() A parallel indictment characterized the people of Isaiah’s time: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Isaiah 29:13). James called the people “ double-minded” because they continued to grasp tightly to the world while claiming to love and worship God. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:1–2, NLT). Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. The apostle Paul taught believers to give their bodies-including their hands-to God as “a living and holy sacrifice-the kind he will find acceptable. We purify our hearts through the inward renewal of the mind and spirit (Psalm 51:10). We cleanse our hands by removing them from sinful pursuits and moral compromises and then seeking God’s forgiveness. We get our hands dirty when we play in the world’s sandbox. God had issued a similar order through the prophet Isaiah: “Wash yourselves. James’ charge to “cleanse your hands” focused more on the people’s worldly actions and outward deeds. James may have also had these words of King David in mind: “Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god” (Psalm 24:3–4). It shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and to his offspring throughout their generations” (Exodus 30:21, ESV). Whenever the priests entered the wilderness tabernacle and approached the altar to minister to the Lord, they were required to cleanse their hands and feet with water from the bronze basin: “They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they may not die. James’ use of the phrase cleanse your hands linked his command in a spiritual and moral sense to the language of the ancient Jewish ceremonial rituals of worship. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8, ESV). He beckoned his readers to repent from their sinful ways and return to the Lord: “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: May the Lord make possessing clean hands and pure hearts a reality for all His children.James observed a widespread problem of worldliness infiltrating the lives of Christians in the early church. May the Lord make this a reality for all His children and cause them to understand the explanation and pour down hunger and thirst for righteousness upon their lives in Jesus’ name. By scripture we have understood that going to the Promised Land requires salvation and sanctification. When God brought forth the children of Israel from Egypt, they crossed two great waters the Red sea and the Jordan River. Make this a prayer point and ask the Lord to do this in your life. We are in the time that God wants to make people holy and filled with the love for righteousness, having put iniquity to death in their lives. If that happens, the righteousness and holiness he is looking for from you will be possible. God is giving attention to your heart to make that heart clean indeed. Whether you should love God or not love Him is from the heart. ![]() ![]() What you should take and what you should not take. It is the heart that controls all actions. You will not do that anymore because, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away. You will not find yourself committing fornication, adultery, drunkenness, lying and other sins again. Surrender your life to Me and give me your heart, and I will break the power of sin in your heart. You will not find yourself doing them anymore. Come to Me for pardon and transformation, then I will break the power of those things in your life and set you free indeed. There are ungodly things you do, willingly or unwillingly evil places you go to and evil activities you engage in that will damn your soul eternally. He wants to save man from bondage and captivity of sin and Satan. He calls all sinners everywhere to repentance and righteousness. ![]() God demands clean hands and a pure heart from all men. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |