Psalm 51:2 – Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin (NKJV)

I started pulling up the carpeting in one of our rooms today. To just look at it, it looked okay.  I’m pulling it up because we are putting in wood flooring. As I was pulling up pieces, I started noticing stains and marks on the underside. What was visible looked good, but the hidden parts were stained. Some of the stains were new, some were many years old, but I had spent many hours and put much hard work into hiding them from sight. As I took my coffee break, I started thinking about myself and how I am exactly like that carpet.  I have wrinkles, gray hairs, and could stand to lose a few pounds, but overall, I look okay on the outside. But, when God looks at my innermost being, my true inside, how do I look?  He sees the stains left by sin in my life.  To the world, it looks as if I have forgiven that person, but is the stain of an unforgiving nature still there?  What about the stain of that sin I’ve hidden for so long, the one no one knows about?  Just as I have spent many hours and put much hard work into trying to hide the stains in the dirty carpet, I have spent many hours and put much hard work into trying to hide the stain of sin in my life. Some of my sin stains are because, even though I have asked for God’s forgiveness, I am so ashamed that I can’t forgive myself.  Some of my sin stains are because, even though I asked for God’s forgiveness, I still tend to revisit the memory of that sin.  Psalm 5:17 says that I need to come to You with a contrite heart.  Lord, I am kneeling before You today, not only discarding stained carpet but asking You to discard the stain of sin in my life.  As David prayed in Psalm 51:2, I am praying today.