Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

We’ve all found little finger prints on our glass doors or windows or walls. No sooner do we get those glass doors cleaned, than a little one comes along and puts his hands all over the door again. Little chocolate, play dough or muddy hands had left their imprint. The evidence was real. We recognized those finger prints. They were placed there by some little person that we loved.

Those were the times when those little ones had no idea of what those little finger prints could do. It took some repetitive correcting and maturing for them to finally learn to use a napkin or washcloth to wipe away the evidence.

Now, that we’re all grown up -- we know better. We do pretty well with keeping our hands clean. Today, even grocery or big box stores, provide antibacterial wipes to clean off that grocery cart before you use it. And, many of us carry little bottles of hand sanitizer. But, really – I’m not talking about those little dirty hands.

Psalm 24:3, 4 says “Who may climb the mountain of the Lord and enter where He lives? Who may stand before the Lord? ONLY THOSE WITH CLEAN HANDS AND PURE HEARTS, who do not practice dishonesty and lying.”

Clean hands. Pure hearts. How can we clean up our hearts? There are many ways: medications, self-help books, therapy, counseling, and mental affirmations. Of course all those ways help our physical and mental thoughts, but when we let God use His super-powerful cleaning system do the work in us, then we’ll show up with those “clean hands and pure hearts”.

Clean hands and pure hearts. Those are the hands and hearts who know better than to allow the stains and dirtiness of the world – lying, dishonesty, cheating, envying, complaining, and deceiving – to “mess up” our relationship with God. We do our best to keep our hands and hearts pure and clean, because the rewards for being God’s good kids are so great. We get to sit at the “adult” table where the benefits are so many. He finds pleasure in His kids when they desire to please Him.

My prayer is from Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me!” Clean hands. Pure heart. Sounds like someone had a good “cleansing” shower!