Stain

You buy an item at Lowes, Home Depot or some hardware store and somewhere stuck on the side of that item is a sticker with a barcode. It serves a good purpose for the store, but very often it is a source of frustration for you. You can’t peel it off, wash it off or scrape it off. The glue on the back of the sticker will not let go. I have tried those ways to remove stickers and failed every time, but there is hope. There are ways to remove those stubborn stickers.

Like stickers there are some stains that are just as hard to remove. They stick to us and they stain us. When we sin we stain our hearts. If we don’t deal with it immediately that stain will set in and there is nothing we can do to remove it. We may make excuses, or resolve to not return to that sin again, but that never works. In some cases we like our sin so much that we want to continue in the sin. We don’t want anyone to know about our sin so we hide it. Hidden sins are dangerous. They cause a big, dark, ugly stain on our hearts, and our relationship with God is damaged. 

As Christians we can not afford to let that happen. We can pick at the sin stain, try to peel it off, promise ourselves that we are done with that sin, but none of those things work. We become very frustrated, and our guilt tears us to pieces. 

Jeremiah 2:22 says, “Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt (sin) is still before me," declares the Lord GOD. This is why we are so frustrated and feel so helpless. There is nothing that we can do that will cleanse our sins, but there is something that can. 1 John 1:1 is the answer, “…the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. ... If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” The blood of Jesus is the answer. When we go to him and confess our sins he will forgive and purify us. That means he will remove the stain on our heart. It feels so good to be pure in the eyes of God, and to be rid of the burden of guilt. We should thank him everyday for making us whiter than snow. 

“What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”