says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool. " Isaiah 1:8
During this time of fasting and praying, we are to focus on being renewed and becoming new in our spiritual journeys. It is the awakening of our spirits within and drawing closer to God. As in Luke 5:37-39, we need new wineskins for the new wine. Am I doing the same old thing in my life? Am I beginning to be poured into by the Holy Spirit into a new relationship with God? Am I starting with a new beginning and new routine? I started a new devotional this morning in the book of Isaiah and what I read, really was in line with the new wineskin analogy. I look at what was happening in Isaiah 1 and I am aware of what was going on in this time frame. This is when the kings of that day were evil in the sight of the Lord. These kings had forgotten God and began to offer sacrifices to other idols and their eyes were set on evil practices. These were God’s chosen people and they turned their back on God. They did as they pleased. God used the Prophet Isaiah to give the words to nations of Judah and Israel to turn from their evil ways and turn back to God. God was giving them a second chance. We have a God of second chances. He gave us His son to die on the cross for us, and with that, it paid the price for us (atonement) and we can now have a relationship with the Father and can go to Him and ask the forgiveness of sins. This means that no matter what our sin, even if it be like “scarlet” ,that God will forgive us and make us as white as snow. It is like the illustration I got when I was in an individual prayer session. As I was explaining to the person,"it it like our sins are written on a sheet of paper and after we ask for forgiveness, God takes that sheet of paper off our notebooks of life, crumples it up and throws it away. Then He gives us a brand new, clean white sheet of paper to begin life anew. (We are new creations in Christ, where the old is gone and the new is here)The in sin in our life is being cleaned and turned from scarlet to white like snow. God forgets all our sins and we move on. We need to forget that old sheet of paper with our sins, because we as humans want to dig that paper out of the wastebasket but God has already thrown it away. What is gone is gone – as far as the East is to the West. (Psalm 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.) Forgetting the past and pressing on to the new is part of the journey of having new wineskins.
Question: Is there any sin that God has forgiven and you are still holding on to? Can you give it to God and become white as snow?
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