The Blankets - Lynne Phipps

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:6 NIV

While watching television, I often busy my hands with crocheting baby blankets.

Over the years, some have gone to individuals, while others have gone to groups and churches. The ones I remember best, however, went to an orphanage in Guatemala. Missionary friends had let me know that newborns, in the poorest sections of the country, were sent home from the hospital wrapped in newspapers to keep them warm. Having delivered newspapers for many years, I remember how black my clothes got from touching the newsprint. They truly did look like filthy rags. Surely the babies of Guatemala deserved something better. Eventually, with the help of our missionary friends, we delivered handmade blankets to those hospitals. Many newborns were no longer wrapped in the equivalent of filthy rags.

Scripture also talks about filthy rags. Isaiah says all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). How, though, can the right things, the good and lovely things which we do, be classified as filthy? In fact, they are not.

When we seek to wrap ourselves in the blanket of them, however, with the belief that they will make us acceptable to God, they become as pitiful and useless as filthy rags. Our good deeds mean nothing to God when it comes to preparing us to stand before Him. They all fall short. No amount will cover our sins or make us righteous before Him. So what are we to do if our good deeds are not enough to gain us entrance into heaven and fellowship with God forever?

Righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, but we can be justified freely by God’s grace through Jesus Christ.

Blanketing ourselves in God’s grace—believing in Christ and the work He did when he shed his blood on the cross—is the only way we can stand in righteousness before a holy God. Our righteousness does not come through good deeds but through the righteousness of Christ. 

Examine yourself to see what you are blanketed in. 

Lynne Phipps and her family live on a small hobby farm in the heart of Alberta, Canada’s farming country. She has been writing devotions for forty years and never tires of the spiritual correlation the Holy Spirit blesses her with. He uses normal everyday events and the behaviors of the multitude of glorious creatures He has brought across her path to point her to the truths of God. Lynne is a devotion writer for VineWords: Devotions and More, Christian Devotions, and Love Lines from God. 

If you seek hope and healing because of hurts you have faced, then Hurt, Hope, and Healing is for you. Click on the title above to order your copy. And thanks to all our faithful followers who share our posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.