Scripture: Matthew 5:8, 27-30
Journal: What do you see when you look into your heart these days? What words best describe it? What do you allow to exist in your heart that
makes it impure? How does purity of heart
occur? Will you fully surrender those
areas to God?
Reflection:
Carl Jung once wrote: “Your vision will
become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside,
awakes.” I wonder if that’s not what
Jesus was getting at when he said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.” The Pharisees spent
far too much time concentrating on outward appearances, leading Jesus to
chastise them pretty severely: “Woe to you, teacher of the law and Pharisees,
you hypocrites! You clean the outside of
the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish
and then the outside also will be clean.” (Matthew 23:25-26)
Jesus knew the truth. He knew that purity of life always comes
from purity of heart. Our lives can
give us clues as to what’s really going on inside of us, but the real work of
the Spirit has to go on deep in our hearts.
Because what’s in our hearts will eventually find its way into our
lives. “The things that come out of the
mouth come from the heart, and these make a man ‘unclean.’ For out of the heart come evil thoughts,
murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man ‘unclean’; but
eating with unwashed hands does not make a man ‘unclean.’” (Matthew
15:18-20)
Therefore, if we want pure
lives, we have to start with pure hearts.
Unfortunately, however, we cannot clean up our impure hearts on our own,
it is the work of God. Our part is to
surrender, and trust. We must open our
hearts to God and beg him to do his work deep within us. We must trust him to make our hearts
clean. It is a work that he deeply longs
to do. His deepest desire is to make our
hearts his very own.
Prayer
Closing
Prayer: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a
right spirit within me. ~Psalm 51:10 (ESV)
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