Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. You sense God because you have a clean conscience and a hopeful heart. Your prayers and study of Scripture make sense out of how your life is playing out. Where you see alignment between your will and God’s will. The Christian experience where you see God’s hand in your daily circumstances. This undivided devotion promises God’s presence. How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. (Psalm 24:3-4)Ĭreate in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD? And who shall stand in his holy place? 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. Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth unite my heart to fear your name. Like David, you have be undone by your sin, not rationalizing it away but in view of its ugliness crying out to God to make you clean and to put you in an appropriate frame of mind. David asks, Who shall ascend to the hill of the LORD? The answer is being that rare someone willing to repent of his sin, who is humbled by God’s presence, and who is honest. So that said, what does undivided devotion to God look like? According to David’s testimony, it begins with being taught by God’s truth and then submitting in humble fear to God’s nature. Each of these areas though still tainted by sin can now come under the control of the Holy Spirit. The Bible describes your hearts as sort of a mission control center comprised of our mind, will, and emotions. The difference is that your sin is no longer in the driver’s seat unless you let it be. Even after you become a believer, you will still have remaining sin in your heart. When God saves you, then you will have a genuine desire to be pure and you will have the real power to be pure. Ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, based on his sacrifice of the Cross, and ask Jesus to save you and then yield full control of your life over to him. So, how can we dig out from this pit called hypocrisy? First, to have a pure heart, you have to be a true believer. This is a sad place to be because when someone is a sham, they are going to continue to harden their own hearts and influence others to do the same. A hypocrite can be lying to himself about what is going on inside but I tend to believe people come to terms with their own emptiness and decide that their only path with God and religion is by going through the motions. Being a fake to the point that you know you are duping others about God being in your life. "You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean." (Matthew 23:26)īeing a hypocrite is literally playacting your faith. "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me (Matthew 15:8) Here’s two verses to remind us of what not to be: That was the exact opposite of the hypocritical religious ways of the Pharisees. No longer enslaved to sin but still deeply effected by sin, right? Ok, so now what? “Purity” in this context means “undivided” devotion to God. So, if our goal is a pure heart, what does that mean? As believers we are given a new heart that can actually know God. I am not sure about you but even apart from how the Bible describes the condition of our sinful hearts, my experience confirms it. To paraphrase and apply this you could say, “Our happiness is the direct result of maintaining a pure heart because in doing so, you will have a living relationship with God.” So, Jesus in effect brings us right up to another spiritual crossroad.Īt first blush, I guess you could think, “Is that all?” Piece of cake, right? All I have to do is keep my heart pure then I can truly sense God’s presence in my life. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (v. Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount brings me to this kind dilemma over and over and verse 8 is no exception. Not overcomplicating or over thinking things can be both refreshing and deflating at the same time. To simply read what it says and believe that that is exactly what it means. Usually the best way to understand Scripture is to take it at face value.
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