During that entire pre-game sequence of events, both teams are 100% on equal ground. Just watching the pregame happenings, fans may have no idea if one team is undefeated and the other is winless. …because no matter how bad a team lost the previous game, it gets a brand new fresh start for the next competition. Players come out looking refreshed and professional in their clean, snazzy uniforms, even if they lost by 30 the night before. 

Can you imagine what it would be like if a team didn’t get a fresh start each game? What if there were rules like this: 

• Any team who loses its previous game isn’t allowed to wash its uniforms before the next game.
• Any team who loses its previous game receives zero minutes of allotted warm-up time before the next game.
• Any team who loses its previous game doesn’t get to have its players’ names read by the announcer prior to tipoff of the next game. 
• Any team who loses its previous game has to start 20 points in the hole at the next game.
• Any team who loses its previous games is not allowed to interact with any referees during its next game.

Those rules would cause an uprising from sports fans everywhere! Why? Because no matter how poorly a team did in its previous game, that team gets a brand new start the next day. Clean uniforms, same pregame procedures as the other team, an announcer excitedly shouting out the players’ names, and a scoreboard that reads an even 0-0 score at tipoff.

Jesus gives us the same fresh start every single day! No matter how terribly we messed up or how many times we sinned the day before, we don’t have to carry that with us. There are no rules that require us to start a new day in the hole because of past mistakes. We don’t have to wear a badge that says “sinner,” and we don’t lose out on the opportunity to talk to God just because we’ve messed up. Our slates are wiped clean! His mercy for you and for me is new every single morning. That’s the best news I’ve heard all day—maybe the best of my life. 

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. -Lamentations 3:22-23

When was the last time you thanked God for wiping your slate clean? For forgiving your sins and giving you a fresh start? Thank Him today! When was the last time you hung onto guilt and shame because of a moment of weakness or a nagging sinful pattern in your life? Decide today to acknowledge your sin, confess it before God, and then turn in a NEW direction. Put on your fresh, clean uniform, and check the scoreboard. It’s a brand new game! The score is 0-0. You aren’t in the hole, and you aren’t any more unworthy than the person next to you. Truth be told, we’re all unworthy of the white robe of righteousness God clothes us in (Isaiah 61:10), but in His great love for us and through Jesus’ life-giving sacrifice, God wipes our slates clean and welcomes us into His presence. Thank you, Lord!

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more. -Isaiah 43:25

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. -Psalm 51:10