March 3, 2024 … Cleansing My Heart

March 3, 2024 … Cleansing My Heart 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...  Please take the time to take in this song with lyrics from the Maranatha Singers singing … Create In Me A Clean Heart …  Poignantly singing of believers desiring for God to clean their (our) heart after confessing and repenting of their (our) sin.  

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Highlight Passage: … Mathew 15:19-20 [NLT] … 

19 For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. 20 These are what defile you. Eating with unwashed hands will never defile you.”  

… The Pharisees had rebuked the followers of Jesus for eating food with unclean hands; and Jesus taught that uncleanness comes from the heart of sinners not from a tradition of eating with unwashed hands.         

Highlight Passage (in context): … Matthew 15:7-20 … USE THIS LINK … 

…  Jesus strongly teaches (and rebukes) the religious leaders for for their impure hearts.      

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Reference Passage: … Psalms 51: 7, 10 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… King David, in confessing his sins of adultery and murder, desires of God for a clean heart and a right spirit.                

Reference Passage: … Psalms 119:9-11 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… King David sings of how a immature believers can cleanse their (our) heart … by hiding God’s word in the heart to purify their (our) spirit.  

Reference Passage: … Proverbs 4:23, 20:9 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Solomon teaches that guarding the heart from sin is the only way to cleanse believers from sin entering out lives.    

Reference Passage: … Matthew 5:8 [NLT] …  

8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.  

… Jesus declares that God blesses those with pure hearts.                         

Reference Passage: … 2Timothy 2:22 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …   

… The Apostle Peter teaches Timothy (and all Christians) how a born-again believer must keep him/her self pure to be used by God for His work.

Reference Passage: … 1John 1:7-9 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …   

… The Apostle John teaches fellow Christians how any born-again believer who lives in the light of God, confessing sin, will be cleansed of any/all sin.  

My Devotional Journal: Today’s Our Daily Bread  Author, Karen Huang -  AT THIS LINK -  told of using the “silent treatment” to hide her anger and animosity for a co-worker.  But it was not until the ODB author was willing to confess her pent up anger to her co-worker and others was the relationship healed and she became friends with her co-worker.  

That’s really the biblical teaching point of today’s ODB entry, isn’t it?  It’s what we hold in our hearts that dictates our lives; and if my readers have taken in the linked song and meditated on the truth from God’s word shared above, prayerfully we’ll see that we Christians must cleanse and guard our hearts of any evil influences or pent-up behaviors so that God can open our hearts to others and live as God directs us.  And that’s why you find me here, … daily, … cleansing my heart with prayer and the truth of God’s word.  How do you keep your heart pure and cleansed from the influences of the evil one, the world, and our own sinful flesh?          

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for cleansing my heart daily by being washed in Your word.

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray. again today, that all reading here will join me, … to be cleansed by Your Spirit, Lord, and Your truth, … starting every day.  … Amen

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Blogger Not:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.