Are you pure in heart?

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

Only the pure in heart will see God. The heart filled with the lusts of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, cannot see nor begin to understand the goodness or purity of heaven.

God is Holy. Holiness is His standard. Purity is not attainable by man, on his own.

“Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” ‭‭James‬ ‭4:8‬ ‭

When our hearts are purified, the work of our hands and the words of our mouth will be pure. God will be near. We will live without fear. What we express comes from the depth of our hearts (Mark 7:22,23). It will be well-pleasing to God.

How to purify our heart? By walking in the two commandments of love through the power of the Holy Spirit. Loving God, and loving everyone in our lives, specially brethren.

“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:” 1 Peter‬ ‭1:22‬ ‭

Purifying our heart requires daily exercise. All Word (scripture) based exercises sanctify the heart. When Jesus prayed for the disciples, He asked God to sanctify them by the truth. How does the truth sanctify a believer? Exercising the truth in our walk purifies our lives from all carnal, old natures that attack us during everyday spiritual warfare.

Obedience to the word of God produces heavenly natures in us. God creates in us a new heart and renews our mind daily. This new heart and fresh mindset, powered by love through the Holy Spirit produces a faith that overcomes all double minded behaviour.

How to stay pure in heart?

“Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation;” 1 Peter‬ ‭1:13-15‬ ‭

Moses met the Father on mount Sinai, before that by the burning bush. This wasn’t the Moses of the palace. This was Moses who was humbled after 40 years herding sheep. This was Moses, the meekest man on the planet at that time. It takes a meek, poor in spirit and a pure person to get that kind of an audience with God. God made it possible for Moses. God is holy, we need to be covered by grace to be at his throne. In Jesus, we are covered like the shittim wood that was covered by brass, created for the ark of the covenant.

We are called to be examples as youth, and Paul cites 6 areas including purity when he writes to Timothy: Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12)

The two blind men were pure in their heart when they believed in Jesus. No matter who hindered them to meet Jesus, they cried out in all earnest. After they were forgiven and healed, they were able to see Jesus and follow Him.

Peter who denied Jesus, was a changed man after he started to walk according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. At the temple, Beautiful, the people around were shocked by the miraculous healing of a lame man. Peter clarified that it wasn't he who performed the miracle, it wasn't his holiness or power. But the power of the Holy Spirit that works in a believer. Where there is a purity of faith and belief, we will see the glory of God.

We cannot define purity however we want. God has a standard, and the Word of God is replete with instructions for us to abide by daily. May God heal our hearts from the corruption of the times and enable a Spirit led walk daily for us to enter into His eternal glory.

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:1-5)