Wednesday, March 16, 2016 Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Have mercy on me, O
God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot
out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
Psalm 51:1-2
Those
of us who regularly use hard water know how it stains. It causes our clothes to
become yellowed and dulls the finish on our bathroom and kitchen fixtures.
Frequent cleaning helps, but when the scrubbing is done with more hard water,
the results are temporary. Running the water through a softener masks the
problem but does not eliminate it. We soon find that our white garments are no
longer white, and we must learn to live with discolored porcelain. The discoloration from the water becomes so
embedded that it can no longer be removed.
Our
sin is similarly part of the fabric of our souls. We can try ridding ourselves of it, we can vow
to do better, but in the end, we can only mask the problem. We are trying to clean hard water problems
with more hard water. No matter how we undertake to sanitize ourselves, we
cannot rid ourselves of sin because of our sin.
Thankfully,
God has had mercy on us! Through the sacrifice of the sinless Jesus, He has
washed away all our iniquity and completely cleansed us from our sin. He washes
us perfectly, so that we are truly and absolutely spotless.[1]
Almighty God, our heavenly Father, renew in
us the gifts of your mercy; increase our faith, strengthen our hope, enlighten
our understanding, widen our charity, and make us ready to serve you; through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, forever and ever. Amen[2]
There is a fountain filled with blood
drawn from Immanuel’s veins,
And sinners plunged beneath that flood
lose all their guilty stains.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
shall
never lose its power
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.[3]
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