Are You Pure in Heart?

Hi ladies!

Today we are looking at the 6th Beatitude which says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” That should certainly make us want to be pure in heart, but what is pure in heart? I’ve heard it described as being good but I think there is more to it than that. It may mean having a heart that isn’t divided between God and worldly distractions or hidden motives. The word Pure may indicate something unmixed, like the inner you is the same as the outer you which is that you are the same person in private that you are in public. It’s easy to be on your good behavior for an hour on Sunday but what about at home when we are with our spouse and kids? This is just basic integrity, folks.

This Beatitude contains a promise from Jesus, that those who are pure in heart will see God. In our present state seeing God is having intimate fellowship with Him in our daily lives but eternally it’s seeing God face to face in Heaven. That’s pretty exciting!

How do we become pure in heart? We won’t do it by just our own effort and I don’t think it means that we have to reach moral perfection on this earth. It’s a work of God’s grace and only He can achieve it for us. Remember David’s prayer in Psalm 51:10, we also have a song that contains the same words. The verse says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” David understood that he wasn’t able to attain that clean heart on his own and he needed God to do it Himself. I believe in order to have a pure heart we need to cleanse our heart thru repentance by acknowledging our own wrongdoings and getting our focus back on God.

We often think that our compliance externally will please God but this Beatitude would indicate that God may be more interested in our internal state. It’s not about how others perceive us because it’s not that difficult to check off the boxes of going to church, helping when it’s convenient or can be seen, saying all the right words and being polite in the presence of others. It’s a lot harder to do those things with family, friends or coworkers that see us every day, especially when we are tired, ill, stressed, etc, and do it with the right motivation. Let’s say I teach women’s bible study and I’m doing it for recognition or I’m nice to the ladies just to boost the number of attenders but go home and tell Jason that I dread it or there’s someone there that I don’t like; that’s not a pure heart. That’s just an example everyone! I really enjoyed our last bible study and look forward to the next one because we really did have a great group!

Let’s look at some other Scriptures that talk about purity of heart. James 4:8 states, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” This verse goes back to the idea of being double-minded, or being one way in private and another in public.

1 Samuel 16:7 says, “But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.'” I think as human beings it’s easy for us to look at someone and get ideas in our head about that person, true or not. People judge by appearance and their personal preferences in appearance but God looks solely at the heart of the person. I’m not implying that we should go to church dirty, hair uncombed, crumbs in your beard, wearing your bathing suit and so on but we also shouldn’t look at the person who came in off the street with a mustard stain on his shirt and think poorly of him. Maybe he’s homeless, maybe he just got off work and didn’t have time to change, maybe his life is a total mess and he happened to drive by your church and felt compelled to come inside. We don’t know someone else’s heart or circumstances.

Psalm 24:4 states, “He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” I take that to mean that a pure heart knows God’s word and isn’t fooled by false doctrine. A person with a pure heart isn’t a liar or a gossip. A person with a pure heart has good motives.

There are so many verses in the bible that talk about our heart and about having a pure heart. If David who was a man after God’s own heart needed to ask the Father to create a clean heart in him, then who are we to think that our hearts are just fine thru our own doing?

As always, if you’re looking for a church or just want to check out something different, please feel free to visit our little church on the hill, it’s worth the drive!

Lori Hug