One Thing

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Matthew 5:8

This verse is one of the most if not the most passion inspiring verses for me in the Bible.
Just relax for a moment, close your eyes and block out everything that is going on around you and hear it again...

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

I said hear it, not read it again -- you're supposed to have your eyes closed! Anyway I think we get the point, this really is a very powerful, passion inspiring verse -- and I really do want to be pure in heart. But I'm not... not for the most part.

Pure means to be one thing and one thing only. If there is anything else in the mix there is more than one thing and that's not pure, and scripture says "the pure in heart will see God." (I have the song "One Thing" by Rich Mullins running through my head as I write this)

So how do I become pure in heart? Well... I don't become it, there is only one way I will ever be pure in heart and that is to allow God to make me that way. David prays in Psalm 51... "Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." I know we like the comfort of trying to convince ourselves that we are going to try harder to be pure -- but our lives will NEVER EVER be pure as a result of our trying harder. When we try harder we are already failing -- that's the thing -- when I try harder it's me trying and not him doing, so now I'm tainted and not pure before I even get started on this thing. Only by allowing God to create a clean, pure heart in me will I ever be pure in heart.

How does that happen? That question is not easily answered...

We have all heard the illustrations of how we get pure gold or silver, or pure anything for that matter. It has to be seperated, and sometimes this is a painful process. That's one of the reasons we can't do it on our own -- we like things painless -- but it can't always be that way.
To get pure metals such as gold it takes fire to melt away the impurities -- when that process is complete what's left is pure gold. In the same way if we want to be seperated from the impurities that have taken root in our lives we have to give ourselves over to God and allow him to seperate them or melt them away from us. In doing so he is making us pure in heart.

How God purifies is not always so obvious but one thing is sure, only God can purify, and he will if you allow it.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 John 1:7