Eyes Wide Open: 41-Day Lenten Devotional Sample

Faithful and Just, Day by Day

“If we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:9

It was a crisp fall morning as I walked alone along the idyllic sands of a beach south of Sydney on the east coast of Australia. I was taking my lunch break from the clatter and hammer of my work in a national steel works. The journey of following Christ had begun a few years before, and I hungered to spend precious moments studying the scriptures, especially the role of Jesus Messiah. 

During that pristine morning, I was reflecting on 1 John 1:9. Rolling it around in my mind, I spoke aloud the words of God against the shrill of the sea gulls, and the hollow sound of the waves patrolling the beach. 

I called out again and again into the fury of the Pacific, “If we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 

We have a responsibility to be truthful before God in the areas where we have missed the mark—issues where we have wronged our God, family, and friends. For instance, attitudes of resentment can insidiously grow in our hearts because we have not severed the thorns of bitterness that can so easily strangle God’s reproducing word in our lives. When we speak honestly to God and accept our responsibility to confess before the Lord our misdemeanors, then he will be faithful and just. 

Why should God be faithful and just? On the cross, Jesus sacrificed his blood to absorb our punishment, and bring us back to our righteous heavenly Father. Not only does God forgive us of our errors because of Christ, but he also cleanses us from every wrong. 

He permanently deletes from our folder all our unrighteous thoughts and deeds as if we never did them. God cleanses us, and we should not attempt to recover the lost items.

The wild tossing of the autumn sea suddenly stopped my beach meditation. I turned and saw the footprints of my journey extending across the sands. Then a large wave broke across my past and rushed towards the dunes, and stretching thin, retreated. And my footprints vanished. There I stood on the shore surrounded by an unspoiled landscape without any evidence of my walk. My heavy imprints had disappeared as if I had never traveled the path. 

I had witnessed a depiction of 1 John 1:9. In the actions of life, we make our way blundering along, leaving disturbing footprints along the way. Yet, if we stop and turn towards God, and ask for his forgiveness of the mess lying before us, then God’s waves of faithfulness and justice roll in, cover our sin through the work of the cross, and produce a life’s path completely spotless before him.

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you are faithful and just to forgive us and make us new each day. Help us to live into that reality and to reflect your faithfulness to all those we meet. Amen.

- Written by Robert Gallagher