Every morning God gives us a fresh, clean slate. For a lot of my life I've felt like there was this limit to how much God had compassion for us. I thought that after so many times of building up sin that would just carry into the next day and just get piled on more, that God would turn on his anger and he would turn off his compassion. This is a mindset of a burden that God wants to release from us. This verse promises a clean start every day, but many of us let our sin pile be an excuse to continue sinning and to not let God give us that fresh start each morning.
A couple mornings ago my teammates and I w
alked on the same streets in Puerto Barrios that we had 2 nights prior going into bars and praying for prostitutes, but this time it was different. Instead of being in these bars during the piling on of sin, we came when God was offering these women a clean slate.
Many of the prostitutes live in the bars, most of which are trafficked. Many of these women recognized us and welcomed us with smiles. We were able to build relationships that were deeper with these women and show them that we cared to come back. Many of the women opened up to us more and we were able to pray for them in a new light.
One woman in particular named Carla opened up to us a great deal. As she told her story, the language barrior became tougher for me. From what little words I understood I found that she had a husband in jail and children to provide for. Without any words I knew exactly how she was feeling from her eyes; trapped and full of shame. In that moment I reflected on a time in my life when I felt trapped completely and exactly what this womans face was showing. I grabbed a couple teammates and as they began to translate what I felt God wanted me to communicate to her, I knew that she saw that I understood. As I told her that I had once felt trapped and like God turned from me from my sin, her focus became more intent on what i was saying. I told her that although I felt trapped, God was still persuing me and had a way out, it just took me trusting God and putting it in his hands. I then told her that God has a plan for her even though she felt trapped and that he would provide for her family. Although she didn't respond with many words I know that God planted a seed of hope in her for a way out. God connected Carla and I in a way that I cannot describe because not many words were even used in the process, but even if for a moment God gave Carla a glimpse that morning of what a clean slate might look like for her.
Almost all of these women don't know that they have a clean slate waiting for them each morning, all they can see is the pile of sin that has been collecting for so long. They need to hear of God's great love in the form of a new start, to experience his new mercies. As we are building more into these women I can see that God has more incredible plans for them, they just have to choose it. The culture here tells them " once a prostitute always a prostitute" but God promises something much different, a clean slate.
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