Articles
Heart Exam: A Clean Slate
Imagine that you’re an art student, given an assignment by your teacher. You decide to slightly deviate from what the project is. The teacher sees it, and tells you it’s wrong. Fearing a bad grade, you apologize profusely. The teacher calmly says that it’s okay, takes a new piece of paper out and shows you what the goal of the assignment was, and the result is more beautiful than you could have ever imagined.
Now imagine that God is the teacher, and this assignment and paper is our lives. Sometimes we think we know what’s best for us, so we go against what God has told us to do. Many times, we see that was the wrong choice. Think about David after his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. When he realized how wrong he was in his choice, he wrote Psalm 51: “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of Your compassion 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, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge” (Psalm 51:1-4). David recognized what the sin he did caused to his relationship with God. He needed a clean slate.
When we deviate from God’s will, we need a clean slate and that’s what God offered us through the gift of His Son. We would not have any chance at one without it.
As the teacher, God also has designs for what He wants our lives to be. We may think we know better, but God truly knows best. His designs for us are greater than anything imaginable. We have to actually let Him do the designing, even when we think differently. God’s way has always been greater and higher than us.
The Hebrew writer in Hebrews 8:10 quotes Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:33 when he says, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” It’s still as true today as it was when the Hebrew writer quoted it and when it was told to Jeremiah. God wants to be our God! He wants us to be His people! So let Him.
We are sinners, so we know from time to time, we will go against His will for us. When we do, we need our slate cleaned. Thankfully, God offers it to us. When we do have that slate cleaned, don’t have it cleaned so we can go back to our own will. Have it cleansed so God can write His perfect design on our hearts. That is the perfect plan that He has set before us.
