Friday, December 15, 2023

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

Prayer – Lord Jesus, I strive to be pure like You. 

"So the LORD has repaid me in accordance with my righteousness, In accordance with my cleanliness before His eyes. 2 Samuel 22:25 NASB20

 

Meditate. Consider what God sees.

 

People say it all the time…cleanliness is next to Godliness, but it really isn’t Biblical. There is no verse that states that—but we can be assured that God expects purity. David tells us in Second Samuel that God sees our cleanliness and even Jesus teaches in the Beatitudes that we will see God if our hearts are pure--that is innocent and living right.

Pure Hearts

God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8

We can only become pure through Jesus Christ as He shed His blood on the cross for our sin.

God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 1 Corinthians 1:30

Trust Jesus with your life…with your whole heart. He alone makes us pure…if we ask for it. That cleanliness is a gift of God through His Son, Jesus. The best gift we’ve ever been offered.

 

Verse of Salvation ~ Job’s friend, Eliphaz the Temanite, told him…You will succeed in whatever you choose to do, and light will shine on the road ahead of you. If people are in trouble and you say, 'Help them,' God will save them. Even sinners will be rescued; they will be rescued because your hands are pure. Job 22:28-30

 

Friday’s Feast at the King’s Table

Clean hands. Important to God…and essential in food preparation so that no food borne illness occur. Just like all the signs say…wash your hands. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) specifies:

·        Before, during, and after preparing food

·        Before and after eating food

·        Before and after caring for someone at home who is sick with vomiting or diarrhea

·        Before and after treating a cut or wound (or attending to someone in a hospital or clinic)

·        After using the toilet

·        After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet

·        After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing

·        After touching an animal, animal feed, or animal waste

·        After handling pet food or pet treats

·        After touching garbage

·        After handling dirty laundry (my addition)

·        After doing yardwork or caring for houseplants (my addition)

How to wash your hands is debatable, but we all can agree that soap and water are necessary. The time it takes depends on how dirty your hands are—but beginning with twenty seconds is fundamental. Lather up the hands well to remove dirt and germs and then rinse well. Drying hands should be done with a clean towel, so not to reinfest germs. Air drying, as with public hand dryers, can also be reinfest germs if the dryer is not clean. No soap and water available? Use of hand sanitizer can also be effective if the hands are not greasy and grimy, and if the gel sanitizer is rubbed on the hands for 20 seconds. The CDC website notes that not all germs are killed by hand sanitizers.

 

Protect yourself and others. Feast safely. Wash your hands.

 

© 2023 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted. 

New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020

by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm

 

Books by Mickey M. Hunacek

Available as e-books or paperbacks at Amazon.com

 

Parenting Day By Day - Daily Devotional for Building Character

Coins in the Bible: New Testament Stories

No comments: