This week’s devotions are based on the Week 2 “A Savior Born for You! (WATCH HERE)
Washed!
Acts 16:29 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 He then brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”
31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all the others in his house. 33 At that hour of the night the jailer took them and washed their wounds; then immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 The jailer brought them into his house and set a meal before them; he was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God—he and his whole family.
After a long day working in the yard, a hard fought athletic event, or just a few days without and you are ready for a shower. There is a refreshing feeling that we all enjoy when we get cleaned up after getting sweaty and dirty and water washes that all away.
Taking a shower is also part of getting ready to head out on a date, or welcome guests into our home. Usually, when we have friends over for dinner, we don’t greet them as we were when we finished cleaning up the yard, but rather after we have showered and cleaned up. We are “presentable.”
Baptism is part of our preparation for the coming of Jesus. We don’t want to meet him with the sweat and dirt of our sin, but rather with the clean, fresh reality of our sins and guilt being removed by the waters of baptism.
The Apostle Paul in the passage above had the privilege of bringing this cleansing to the prison guard who was ready to end his life. Paul and Silas were in the stocks of the prison when an earthquake made it possible for all the prisoners to escape. The jailor, instead of waiting for his superior to take his life for losing prisoners, was about to take his own life. Fortunately the words of Paul stopped him and Paul got to witness about Jesus to him. As a result, the wounds of Paul and Silas were washed, but Paul got to wash the wound of sin away from the jailor and his whole household (which would include his children). He was filled with joy because he had come to believe in God–he and his whole family.
Imagine the refreshment to his heart when he moved from suicidal to being saved, from being overwhelmed with guilt and hopelessness to being forgiven and filled with hope.
This is the same refreshment we can enjoy as we await for Jesus to return. Satan loves to fill our hearts with guilt and hopelessness. It’s easy to allow this voice to take hold of our mind and heart. It’s easy to allow it to remove our joy and peace and fill us with stress and anxiety. That’s the time to remember our baptism.
In our baptism we are fully assured that all our sins are forgiven, washed away. We are assured that we are a child of God and promised eternal life. Sure, we will struggle with sin and we never want to give up that struggle, but we can always have hope and joy in our baptism because we are fully washed.
Titus 3:4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Enjoy the refreshing reality of your baptism and the joy it brings as you wait for Jesus’ return!
Apply: What feeling do you get when you are done with a shower? How does you baptism do the same thing for you spiritually?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the washing you gave me in my baptism. Help me to always live int the joy and refreshment it brings! AMEN.