Fresh Start

There are days when you feel like you need the slate wiped clean, you just need a fresh start. At the store that I work a few days a week, we sell a fuel additive called "Fresh Start". It's a small round cartridge that you put in your gas cap of your lawn mower. Everyday it releases a drop of chemical that keeps the gas clean and fresh so that the engine will run smooth. This morning I was reading Psalm 32 and David said, "Count yourself lucky--how happy you must be--you get a fresh start, your slate's wiped clean" (The Message). David says this to us as a statement of fact, it's a done deal. You can count on it. You can bet your life on it. How do I know this to be true? Because, as he gave them the cup of wine to drink, Jesus told his disciples, "This is my blood, God's new covenant poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:26-29). Like the drop of Fresh Start that keeps the gas clean, my life is kept clean by one drop of blood. It cleansed me and it cleanses me. It made my spirit alive. It gave me a new heart that his holy. A place that is clean. A place that God could dwell. David goes on to say, "Count yourself lucky--God holds nothing against you" (v.2). Does all this mean that I never sin anymore? Hardly. When I do sin, I become filled with guilt, like David. When I don't confess it, like David, "all the juices of my life dried up" (v.4). But when I admit to God my failures, when I confess and admit to Him that He's right and I'm wrong, like David, "Suddenly the pressure was gone--my guilt dissolved, my sin disappeared" (v.5). Everyone needs a fresh start. My God is the God of the fresh start...the God of the clean slate...the God of the second chance...and the third chance...and the fourth... It's a grace that I cannot comprehend, but I am overwhelmingly thankful for. It's available to all. Come to Him and you too can count yourself lucky.
Duane