Clean Hands?

Greetings from N. Wintzell! Last week was a good week around the church, and I look forward to see what the next week holds. If any of you out there grew up in a country church, you know that last night was an important time in the life of our church, as well as many others. January 30th was the fifth Sunday of the month and fifth Sundays mean Sunday night singin'. We had two special guests on tap for our singing last night, but unfortunately both fell through at the last minute. So, at the zero hour we made plans to fill in with some of our own talent and I prepared a brief devotion to go along with the music.

In preparing for the devotion, I visited one of my favorite passages from the Psalms.

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to what is false
and does not swear deceitfully.
5He will receive blessing from the LORD
and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek the face of the God of Jacob.
Selah

Psalm 24:3-6

As I've shared on here several times before, my first real job was working for my Dad over at Landry Boatworks. If you've ever worked on or around boats, you know that it can be dirty work. I hate trying to anything with dirty hands. Through the course of the day, as my hands got dirtier, I would do what came naturally to me: I'd wipe my hands off on the most convenient spot. Within a few hours of being on the job, I'd be completely filthy, whether my particular job was that dirty or not, because I had wiped my filthy hands all over my shirt and blue jeans to try to get them clean. While it removed some of the grime from my hands, the overall effect wasn't too pleasing. In fact, the harder I worked at cleaning myself up, the worse shape I got in. No matter how hard I tried, I just got dirtier.

I discovered along the way, that the only way to really get clean was to go wash my hands. I needed some outside intervention. The reality was that it was impossible for me to have clean hands without some help. My efforts to wipe them clean only made the situation worse.

I'm convinced that many of us are going through our spiritual lives with the same problem. We carry with us the guilt of sin and rebellion and rather than choosing to clean our hands we try to wipe them off on our pants. The baggage grows heavier and we find ourselves spiritually, physically, and emotionally broken down by the weight that we are carrying, and no matter what we do, the situation only grows worse. Some try to ease the pain through substance abuse, intimacy, or even isolation. Some try to absolve themselves through church participation or volunteerism. But at the end of the day, they never find peace.

How can a man stand before God with clean hands? Is it through perfect sinlessness? None of us could achieve that. I believe that we find the answer in God's call to confession. As we admit our failures to God, our hands are cleaned and we receive the freedom to walk in fellowship with Him. Folks, God's a forgiving God and His desire is for His children to walk in the light of that grace. He doesn't want a bunch of servants walking around with filthy hands. John reminds us:

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

Here on N. Wintzell, I'm resolved to be a man of clean hands.