It\u2019s Sunday morning. My first thoughts are of misdeeds I did long, long ago. “WHAT? Lord, why am I thinking those thoughts? I know when I ask for forgiveness from my faltering and failings \u2013 You forgive me, instantly. So why am I going back to my childhood this morning?” I thought those times were long past. But, then I realize that maybe, just maybe, I never consciously asked God for forgiveness of some specific times when I was just a kid. But today I did ask. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I remembered my next-door neighbor (and 2nd grade friend) was home by herself a lot. We played lots of games but I recall her showing me money she had taken from her mom\u2019s and dad\u2019s bedroom. She said, \u201cThey\u2019ll never notice it. Let\u2019s go to the store!\u201d The store was just a couple of blocks away. I was excited because she was going to share her loot with me. The loot was just candy, but still, it was stolen goods. I remember the next time at her house, we did it again. I was her accomplice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know when I asked Jesus into my heart when I was just eight years old and asked for forgiveness of my sins \u2013 I was completely and wholly made clean. He threw all of those sins into the Sea of Forgetfulness. (Micah 7:19) But, I don\u2019t think I ever specifically asked forgiveness for the things I had forgotten about. Apparently, I needed to. But, more than dredging up the past, I think God was reminding me how my personal value system developed over the years. Now, I don’t even accept more change than I should be given from a cashier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nevertheless, maybe, it\u2019s this \u201caloneness\u201d during this isolation period with less distractions that has me in this \u201ccoming clean\u201d mode. Yesterday, my blog was about \u201cclean hands AND a pure heart\u201d. It seems God has me in His complete sanitizing wash today. I sense Him nudging me to pray the \u201cLitany of Humility\u201d. I pull it out and I pray it. I am asking Him to cure me from way more than my childhood mistakes. I’m asking for even my desires and thoughts to come clean, too. My car wash has levels of washes I can buy \u2013 the basic and the full-body, then the extras for tires and wax and then the full deal — inside and out cleaning. I ask Him for that today as I read and pray this Litany of Humility prayer which covers all my desires to be more like Jesus. Just in case you\u2019d like the full-wash-deal today, I offer this prayer image for you to \u201ccome clean\u201d too! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.\u201d 1 John 1:9
\n“O come to the altar
\nThe Father’s arms are open wide
\nForgiveness was bought with
\nThe precious blood of Jesus Christ!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s Sunday morning. My first thoughts are of misdeeds I did long, long ago. “WHAT? Lord, why am I thinking those thoughts? I know when I ask for forgiveness from my faltering and failings \u2013 You forgive me, instantly. So why am I going back to my childhood this morning?” I thought those times were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12135,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12777,16953],"tags":[7602,16949,16951,1210,5807,16952,3677,1382,16944,16946,16945,40,16816,16947,16948,16950],"class_list":["post-12134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-forgiveness","category-sea-of-forgetfulness","tag-1-john-19","tag-aloneness","tag-ashamed","tag-blog","tag-cleaning","tag-coming-clean","tag-forgive","tag-forgiveness","tag-full-body","tag-immaculate","tag-inside-and-out","tag-inspiration","tag-isolation","tag-litany-of-humility","tag-micah-719","tag-sea-of-forgetfulness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12134"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12138,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12134\/revisions\/12138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}