March 25 – Keep Short Accounts

Hope for Today: A Daily Devotion from Reasons for Hope*Jesus

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“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow…. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.” Psalm 51:7, 9

“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18

“I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” Isaiah 44:22

We must not keep away from Christ on account of our stumblings and manifold faults. This would cast us under the law again and bind us under condemnation. But we should humble ourselves directly before God and seek earnestly for pardon through the blood of Christ. The longer we delay this, the worse our case will grow; and the sooner it is done, the sooner we shall have forgiveness. The Lord not imputing those sins to us which are sincerely repented of, our soul returns to its rest again. And instead of falling into carnal security (as some may think), we shall thus strengthen our faith and become more watchful.

Hasten, therefore, and come as soon and as well as you can. He will receive you, though you advance toward Him slowly and with trembling. It is a great act of faith to go to Jesus and confess sin as soon as it is committed. Satan always suggests delay, and we too often listen to him, as if allowing guilt to rankle in the conscience could do any good. As soon as sin is detected, carry it at once to Jesus.

Devotion by Karl Heinrich von Bogatzky (1690—1774)