Clean slate comes from the time people wrote on slate chalk boards. Whether that was your tavern bill or your letters in school. Starting with a ‘clean slate’ meant you wiped the board clean and started over. This phrase comes from the use of chalk and slates in classrooms in the past. By wiping the slate clean, a student could remove any evidence of a mistake. This was also common in the eighteenth-century taverns and shops where bills were accounts recorded in chalk were wiped clean.
Figuratively Jesus also came to wipe slates clean, removing all guilt of sin and addiction from the mind, giving one a new beginning or season. The problem with the human mind is that often whilst God has forgiven and set the record straight, forgiveness of others or oneself does not take place as if the faded chalk on the slate can still be read.
The prophet Mica says in Chapter 7:18 & 19 (GNB) There is no other god like you, O LORD; you forgive the sins of your people who have survived. You do not stay angry forever, but you take pleasure in showing us your constant love. You will be merciful to us once again. You will trample our sins underfoot and send them to the bottom of the sea!
Dear Lord, create a new season around me, one that forgives and forgets the past and its hurt. Bring forth in me a season of love and clean slates for all those around me. Hear my heart as I am purified by the blood of the Lamb, with a pure heart and contrite spirit. I declare those who hurt me free, in Jesus’ name, Amen. Dr Cliff Ferguson – Shalom Centurion.