PURE IN HEART
PART ONE
“Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God”
MATTHEW 5:8
The heart of a man is the lens through which he is able to see God. Purity of heart is THE ESSENTIAL quality that enables us to behold HIM. The Blood of Jesus reconciles us to a place of relationship. Faith brings us to the place of INTERACTING with HIM by producing within us an obedience that is the means to the reality of a PURE HEART.
“Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren”
Romans 1:1
We desire growth and change. We desire truth and reality. We want to SEE JESUS. We fill ourselves with teachings, books, seminars and conferences which can all be good things, but without PURITY OF HEART we still will not be ABLE to see HIM. This is not some impossible standard for which we strive to please God in the hope that HE will grant us a glimpse of HIS wonder and glory. It is simply that we are UNABLE to see HIM without a PURE HEART. HE stood in the streets of Jerusalem, HE walked the common roads of Israel, HE healed the sick, HE spoke as no man ever spoke, HE walked as no man ever walked and YET they saw HIM not.
“He was in the world, and the world was made by him,
and the world knew him not. He came unto his own,
and his own received him not”
I JOHN 1:10 – 11
Nothing is so blinding as a religious agenda mingled with the deception of self seeking, self serving and self loving. A man full of himself not only has no room for God, he is blind to everything that is around him. Everything is weighed and measured by how things will affect his well being and his purposes. There is no ability to be objective for everything is interpreted from the standpoint of SELF. This condition produces a life that is easily offended, that needs to control its environment, and one that ceases to grow and develop in its relationship with God.
“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,
are changed into the same image from glory to glory,
even as by the Spirit of the Lord”
II CORINTHIANS 3:18
The key to BEHOLDING HIS Glory is that we come with “open face”. This denotes repentance and obedience with nothing to hide. It is in that BEHOLDING that we are then changed. There can be no change within a man except by the SEEING of HIM. Not only is purity of heart the window through which we see HIM, it also bears the pronouncement of blessing!
“BLESSED are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God.”
MATTHEW 5:8
Brian Troxel
Amen! Before reading this I was struggling with the fact that the veil is torn so we could enter in. All this week I have been wrestling with the idea that my seeking and asking was a means of manipulating the Lord. Was I trying to walk righteously only to gain acceptance and entry into His Presence. I know that one thing that has been imprinted in me from my parents was the idea that the harder you work the more you will get “ahead”. The Lord is bringing this out in my life at this very moment. I am doing everything “right” and working very hard at getting my blood sugars to be acceptable. Yet time and again I am getting unacceptable readings. This is not the problem, the problem is my reaction to this failure. I get very angry and frustrated and lash out at those who are trying to help me. I also have this self-righteous attitude of I am doing everything that I can why am I not being rewarded. Your letter is well timed and I will continue to seek God on this very subject as He is obviously willing to expose the root of this “wrong-thinking” Bless you brother.