Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Yesterday
I said this may be the most frightening of the blessings. Some of you may have
wondered why. For me I have seen glimpses of how my heart truly is, not how I
would like it to be. It is not a good picture.
In
Ezekiel 8 there is a prophecy about a hole in the wall of the temple which led
to a secret chamber where all of the elders were worshiping all kinds of
abominations. In verse 12 God says to Ezekiel;
And He said
to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in
the dark, each man in his image room? For they are saying, Jehovah does not see
us; Jehovah has forsaken the earth.
Adulteries,
murders, robbery and all sorts of covetousness, as I in stillness looked at
what sort of things I hide in my heart, these are things I found. At times I am
successful at removing those things from my heart, but there is still a place
for them there, sort of like a shelf with a label that says what belongs there.
I
suspect that a pure heart is one where not only the abominations cannot be
found, but where there is no place for them.
Imagine
seeing a beautiful woman and immediately your attention is drawn to her face
looking for signs of virtue, and hope, no matter how she is dressed. Imagine
seeing a person obviously ruined by sin and rebellion and immediately praying
for grace for repentance. I could come up with more illustrations but hopefully
you can see where I am going.
It is
my heart that directs my attention. It is my heart that produces my immediate,
automatic responses.
Eternal
ever present, all knowing God, you know my heart. There is nothing that I can
hide from you, and yet by your spirit you call me to yourself. Thanks and
praise always belong to you. Your will is that I find grace for repentance and
for full salvation. You are the only source of grace; I must cling to you. Amen
Create in me
a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
Your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of
Your salvation, and uphold me with
a willing spirit.
(Psalms 51:10-12)
Our hearts can be purified by faith when we repent from sin. Then comes the fight of faith. The body is dead because of sin, so temptations still feel like the old me. But what is missing from this picture? I no longer agree with sin! The new man within (the real me) resists and goes boldly to the throne of grace for help. Many Christians live in lifelong condemnation because they think that feeling drawn to sin means they have already given in. Absolutely NOT! That's where suffering is required so sin does not get power, but instead it dies. Here's the fantastic result i'm starting to experience: endurance in faith when i'm tempted means that all those graven images on the walls of my consciousness, which used to have such drawing power, become more and more erased over time, and Jesus' image takes their place. Persevere dear brother. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
ReplyDelete1 Corinthians 15:49 | ESV