I have missed sharing in this blog with you; it is time to get back to our Beatitude lessons. What do you think of when you hear the words “pure in heart?” I think of clean motives; righteous actions. Jesus said, “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.” (Matt. 5:8) I, Mary, want to “see” God! I want to be able to discern his righteousness at work in me. As well, I want to be able to identify the Spirit of Christ–the Risen Savior–in and through others. I think that is what God meant; so I need to know how to keep my heart pure.
Transparency and cleanliness before God is something we learn with the help of the Spirit. It is not something that comes natural to our flesh. Like our lessons from Adam and Eve, we like to blame others and cover ourselves; our wrong actions…sin. We want to use our distorted, biased, and self-preserving mindsets and perspectives about ourselves and call them pure. We are not “that” bad, after all, right? It is what we want to believe as truth. Likewise, we want to use our distorted, biased, and self-preserving mindsets about the motives of others and call them impure. Again, we want to believe our perspective is truth. But, I don’t think that process of keeping a pure heart is quite what God had in mind. In fact, I believe God desires for us to place our motives and perspectives before the Lord and wait for the Spirit to tell us whether or not they are pure; Truth–Jesus–speaks and bears witness with our spirit. Once we decide that we don’t always know ourselves or others as well as God does, then we are ready for the next level.
Creation is a beautiful place to start looking for God; do you see the work of the Spirit of God in nature? Here’s another level of seeing. Because our God is so totally other-focused, keeping my eyes on others is a good place to start looking for God. When I see people in selfless acts of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, thoughtfulness, and self-control with others…I am seeing the Spirit of God at work. Voices of the heart like love, forgiveness, mercy, and joy are evidences of God in a person’s life. Are you “seeing” the presence of the Spirit of God when you look at others? How about “seeing” the work of God in you? Is your renewed spirit growing in the power of the Spirit into the mature image of Christ? Or, is Jesus still a babe in the manger of your heart? If we do not “see” the work of the Spirit helping us grow up, we may need to bow our hearts down before God so He can purify and clean them up.
Remember one thing, only God–Truth–knows the heart. Stay transparent and clean before the Lord and get ready to watch the Spirit in action before your very eyes! God will bless you!
“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord–who is the Spirit–makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
2 Corinthians 3:16-18