Don't forget to wash your hands!

(February Devotional--for NHC Westside)

The other day I stumbled across an article from the New York Times that claimed, 25% of men admit to not washing their hands after using the restroom. Ugh! I wanted to gag, put on a pair of mittens and refuse to hold my boyfriend’s hands unless he sanitized those grubby paws in front of me. This hygiene discovery rattled my world. I mean, how hard is it to us a little soap and water? It takes almost no time or effort, and besides that, not washing them is just plain gross.

I wonder if maybe we just get lazy. Maybe we get swept up in the business of life and forget that stuff like washing our hands is important. And then I wonder if we do the same thing with our spiritual lives. Sometimes we get bored or tired or lazy, and before we know it, we have given up on purity. We have stopped spending time with God and asking him to continually clean us. It’s a terribly harsh question, but I think it is worth asking: have we, like the icky men, stopped caring about spiritual contamination?

That’s a dangerous place to find ourselves. Psalm 24:3-5 says, “Who shall go up into the mountain of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His Holy Place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted himself up to falsehood or to what is false, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” From this verse we can see that God honors purity. But that doesn’t mean it will be easy. Purity takes effort and we have to be purposeful in our actions. It is only when we commit to having a pure heart that God will be able to work through us. We must make time to scrub our souls.

During the month of February, Westside will be tackling the issue of sexual purity. As we enter into this month, let’s be intentional about examining our lives for anything that isn’t clean. Maybe it will relate specifically to sexual purity, or maybe it will be another area that needs to be washed. Whatever it is, I know that God is going to honor us for our honesty and willingness to be cleansed. So, here’s to scented hand soap and trusting God to renew our hearts. Bring on the suds!