Are You Unclean?
2 Chronicles 23
So much has happened in 2 chronicles. When we get to this chapter Joash has been in hiding for 7 years and is now ready to take his place as King. Jehoiada the priest has made all the preparations, gathered all the people necessary and presented Joash as the king.
As we get a little further into the chapter a verse stood out to me and I kept coming back to it.
And he set the gatekeepers at the gates of the house of the Lord, so that no one who was in any way unclean should enter.
2 Chronicles 12:19 NKJV
What does it mean to be unclean??
For out of the heart come evil thoughts - murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person;
Matthew 15:19-20NKJV
They guarded the temple to keep anything unclean out.
We are the temple, are we guarding what goes in. Because what goes in will come out.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own.
1 Corinthians 6:19 NKJV
A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45 NKJV
So I ask the question again, are you unclean? It sounds harsh but when you put it into the context of what Jesus was talking about it changes your perspective.
What are we allowing into our lives? Are we thinking or saying? Matthew 5:21-28 talks about murder and adultery but from your heart. We think because we aren’t going out and having an affair or killing someone we are fine but that could not be further from the truth.
The only way to combat this is to pray and ask Jesus to examine our heart.
Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalms 139:23-24
I love to pray scripture and David said it best in Psalms 51:10-12 NKJV.
Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not taken your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
Jesus we come before you today humbled by your grace and mercy. Help me to have a clean heart and help me to have the faith and courage to overcome. I ask you today to cleanse my heart and purify my mind from all unrighteousness.
In Jesus name, Amen.
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