“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7, ESV).

There's just something really satisfying about having a neat, clean, tidy house.

Have you ever, after doing an "extreme makeover" cleaning and mercilessly hunting down and disposing of every last dust bunny, emphatically announced to anyone within earshot, "Hey! I just cleaned this house! Don't make it dirty again!"

Then, as your request still hangs in the air, dirty dishes mysteriously appear on the kitchen counter, the pets zip through the house willing themselves to shed, and the teenagers come in from school throwing everything anywhere.

To paraphrase Solomon, "What does a person gain from all her labor at which she toils in the house? Occupants come and occupants go, but the clutter remains forever. The laundry is done yet there is always more to do. All things are wearisome, more than one can say."

1 John 1:9 states, "[I]f we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins" (TLB).

After a good soul and heart cleansing, you can almost hear Jesus say, "Hey! I just cleaned this house! Don't make it dirty again!" Or, to put it in more biblical language, "Go, and sin no more."

But sin we do. Early and often.

We start fresh with His new mercies every morning, and then go into the day and express our displeasure to a co-worker, spread a little gossip about a neighbor, linger over a vengeful thought, dodge a responsibility, place blame away from ourselves, ignore someone’s request for help, swear under our breath, exceed the speed limit, unrein our anger, and on and on.

The reality is that living life is a dirty business. Just as we cannot clean our houses "once and for all," so being cleansed from sin is not a "once and done" milestone in our lives. Every day, before suiting up in our God-supplied armor, odds are we need to take a spiritual shower and get cleaned up again. Psalm 68:19 declares, "What a glorious Lord! He who daily bears our burdens also gives us our salvation" (TLB).

Daily confession followed by a vigorous washing in the Word will make you feel like a new person every time.

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