A PURE HEART
Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God."
Jeremiah 2:22 "'For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap,Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,' says the Lord God."
Malachi 3:2-3 "“But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderers’ soap. 3 He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold and silver, That they may offer to the Lord An offering in righteousness."
William Barclay: "This beatitude demands from us the most exacting self-examination. Is our work done from motives of service or from motives of pay? Is our service given from selfless motives or from motives of self-display? Is the work we do in Church done for Christ or for our own prestige? Is even our Church-going an attempt to meet God or a fulfilling of an habitual and conventional respectability? Is even our prayer and our Bible reading engaged upon with the sincere desire to company with God or because it gives us a pleasant feeling of superiority to feel that we do these things? Is our religion a thing in which we are conscious of nothing so much as the need of God within our hearts, or a thing in which we have comfortable thoughts of our own piety? To examine one's own motives is a daunting and and a shaming thing, for there are few things in this world that even the best of us do with completely unmixed motives." (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, p. 102).
Precious Heavenly Father,
I must be clean. Not just outside, but all the way through. My heart, my motives, my character, my passions and drives. I must be clean.
I have seen the images of pioneer women and villagers washing clothes at the creek. They pound the garments with rocks, scrubbing, soaping, and scouring until pronounced clean. The soil of my character is too deep for me to extract with laundry detergent. I must be clean, and only You can wash me at the depths of my depravity and filthiness.
I have seen the images of the pioneer grist mill, farmers bringing their grain to be ground in the great stones, turned by the force of flowing water. I feel as if the tentacles of sinful character are so interwoven in the seed of my soul, that only grinding and sifting will do. As you grist my character through the grinding of the Spirit’s gentle love and care can you then sift my soul. Sift out every speck of foreign sin so that You can restore in me Your intended purity.
I have seen the images of soldiers in uniform. Their external appearance presents the illusion of unity, but discontentment, cowardice, and incompetence foster infighting. Only as they are cleansed of division can they be an effective military force. Sometimes, my soul feels like a divided military unit. My divided heart must be cleansed and restored to unity by Your Holy Spirit if I am to be effective for You.
I have seen the images of gold refined by fire. The flecks, flakes, and nuggets are pulled from the ground and weighed. Then comes the arduous task of super-heating the gold to a molten state, burning and skimming dross until the gold is pure. The now solid gold bar weighs less that it did in its precious state, but it is pure.
I am mixed with sin, sinfulness, and depraved character that are in opposition to what You are trying to do in my life. Break me apart until You can extract all that is unlike You. Then remake me, reshape me, reform me in Your likeness–clean, holy, approved by You.
“O the bliss of the man whos motives are absolutely pure, for that man will some day be able to see God!” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, p. 103).
In the Name of my Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and my Abiding Comforter,
Amen.
William Barclay: "This beatitude demands from us the most exacting self-examination. Is our work done from motives of service or from motives of pay? Is our service given from selfless motives or from motives of self-display? Is the work we do in Church done for Christ or for our own prestige? Is even our Church-going an attempt to meet God or a fulfilling of an habitual and conventional respectability? Is even our prayer and our Bible reading engaged upon with the sincere desire to company with God or because it gives us a pleasant feeling of superiority to feel that we do these things? Is our religion a thing in which we are conscious of nothing so much as the need of God within our hearts, or a thing in which we have comfortable thoughts of our own piety? To examine one's own motives is a daunting and and a shaming thing, for there are few things in this world that even the best of us do with completely unmixed motives." (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, p. 102).
Precious Heavenly Father,
I must be clean. Not just outside, but all the way through. My heart, my motives, my character, my passions and drives. I must be clean.
I have seen the images of pioneer women and villagers washing clothes at the creek. They pound the garments with rocks, scrubbing, soaping, and scouring until pronounced clean. The soil of my character is too deep for me to extract with laundry detergent. I must be clean, and only You can wash me at the depths of my depravity and filthiness.
I have seen the images of the pioneer grist mill, farmers bringing their grain to be ground in the great stones, turned by the force of flowing water. I feel as if the tentacles of sinful character are so interwoven in the seed of my soul, that only grinding and sifting will do. As you grist my character through the grinding of the Spirit’s gentle love and care can you then sift my soul. Sift out every speck of foreign sin so that You can restore in me Your intended purity.
I have seen the images of soldiers in uniform. Their external appearance presents the illusion of unity, but discontentment, cowardice, and incompetence foster infighting. Only as they are cleansed of division can they be an effective military force. Sometimes, my soul feels like a divided military unit. My divided heart must be cleansed and restored to unity by Your Holy Spirit if I am to be effective for You.
I have seen the images of gold refined by fire. The flecks, flakes, and nuggets are pulled from the ground and weighed. Then comes the arduous task of super-heating the gold to a molten state, burning and skimming dross until the gold is pure. The now solid gold bar weighs less that it did in its precious state, but it is pure.
I am mixed with sin, sinfulness, and depraved character that are in opposition to what You are trying to do in my life. Break me apart until You can extract all that is unlike You. Then remake me, reshape me, reform me in Your likeness–clean, holy, approved by You.
“O the bliss of the man whos motives are absolutely pure, for that man will some day be able to see God!” (William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 1, p. 103).
In the Name of my Heavenly Father, His Son Jesus, and my Abiding Comforter,
Amen.
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