clean

CLEAN.

Clean eating.  Clean water.  Clean air.  Clean body.
Clean home.  Clean living.  Clean energy.  Clean environment.
Clean speech.  Clean entertainment.  Clean __________ (fill in the blank.)

We all desire to be clean.

Why?

Clean is good for us!

Clean is freedom.

Clean is simple.
Clean is healthy.
And, in life, clean is always needed to live fully and well.

There is nothing about being clean that isn't good.
We all know this.
In fact, our society formalizes summits, collaborates, and funds all sorts of efforts in support of CLEAN.  Why?  Because cleanliness brings purity.  And, purity produces perfection... holiness.

There is nothing more refreshing than a clean slate.
There is nothing more rewarding than a clean life.
To be clean means to be free of pollution, stain, or blemish.  To be fresh and wholesome.
To be new.
And we love us some NEW and IMPROVED, don't we?!!!

But how, in this soiled, sinful world, can mankind really be CLEAN?  Clearly, we are all contaminated in some form or another.  We are flawed, imperfect, broken, dirty.  Still, we wash, and vacuum, and dust, and order... We scrub, and sanitize, and filter filter filter.  Until one day, we are so overwhelmed by it all that we give in.  Clean is too big for us.  It is impossible to fully achieve and regularly maintain on our own.  So, we simply give up and sell out - deciding that all things unfiltered, unadulterated, and unholy are easier and have proven to gain us attention.  A different kind of attention, mind you.  Like an unruly, desperate child, we reach for any form of acknowledgement and spiral downward into all things dysfunctional.  It is then that our campaigns turn ugly.  Our environments deteriorate.  Our lives build up clutter.  Our values become gray.  Our words get sloppy, our attitudes get lazy, and our frames get weak.  In short, when we live unclean our whole health, and the health of others, suffers.

Oh Lord, we are unable to be CLEAN.
We need Your help.
We need Your Spirit to restore us, renew us, and reward us in Your everlasting holiness!!!

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. 
(Psalm 51:10-12)

CLEAN.

Clean is good for us!
Clean is freedom.
Clean is always needed to live fully and well.

There is nothing about being clean that isn't good.

Because God is good.

We can become His NEW.

We can, in Christ, be free, be CLEAN... forever!!!

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:1-12)

Blessings!

~Victoria

© The Devoted Woman | Victoria Anderson