He Gave Her Clean Hands

In a retreat themed, "Clean Hands, Pure Heart," a lady turned to me during the song service and handed me a piece of paper on which she had written: "My hands are dirty. The blood of my child is on my hands. I need to wash my hands so I can have a pure heart and can lift my hands without shame honoring God."

"I had an abortion when I was 19, and I cannot feel forgiven," she whispered.

At the close of the service, she prayed at the altar. The next morning, she told the women of her guilt from her abortion. Then she added, "Yesterday when I knelt at the altar, Jesus was there. He reached out His hands to me, and I saw that the blood of my child was on His hands. My hands were clean!"

That is exactly what Jesus' blood does for us. Atonement means to cover or to cancel. In the New Testament it means to "exchange." Jesus gave His life in exchange for ours.

How often we spend moments, days, even years feeling guilty for a past wrong. We have only to look to Jesus' blood and accept His forgiveness. God remembers our sins no more. They are forgiven, atoned for, pardoned. Our hands are as clean as though we had never sinned.

When our view of the blood of Jesus is as high as God's is, we'll know He can remove every trace of sin from our lives.

Thank You, Jesus, for the love that caused You to shed Your blood for me.

""As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust" (Ps. 103:13-14).

"For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect" (1 Peter 1:18, 19).