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"Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God."
(Matthew 5:8)
How does one become and remain pure in heart?
To have a pure heart takes the divine, miraculous intervention of God. Jeremiah 17:9 says the heart of man is exceedingly wicked. One translation reads, "incurably sick". One writer commenting on this verse says, "The heart, the center of life for the Hebrew, is exceedingly deceitful and treacherous, especially in propagating the idea that man's heart is naturally good" (Holy Bible—Baptist Study Edition, p. 1037). Solomon asked this question in Proverbs 20:9, "Who can say, 'I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?'"
If we are honest, then we will admit the accuracy of Scripture: we are unclean; we sin and make terrible choices; we need God and a pure heart. David knew that a clean heart could only come from God, and he prayed for as much in Psalm 51:10: "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me."
Left on our own, we are in a desperate way, for we are incapable of changing our nature, our hearts. So, what can cleanse a sin-stained, dirty heart and make it clean? What can wash away my sin? The answer is, nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ! I love the way this old hymn puts it: "There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains."
What a wonderful promise God offers to all of us in 1 John 1:9, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The word translated "cleanse" is katharizo. Have you confessed your sins and believed in Jesus Christ to save you? If not, I invite you to do that today.
We are saved in a moment, but it takes a lifetime for sanctification, for us to be set apart for God and His work in us. We must daily confess our sins to God and ask for His forgiveness. And we must ask Him daily to create a clean heart in us so every dimension of our being—our soul, spirit, body, mind, intellect, emotions, and will—are clean and ready for God to use.
James 4:8 states, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded." It is so easy to become far from God amid religion. Over time, we place the emphasis where God never intended for us to place it. We become like the Pharisees and focus on the externals, the outward shell of religion, but God continues to look at and evaluate the status of our hearts.
Perhaps today you have an impure heart due to stressing the external formalities of religion over the inward pure heart that Jesus seeks. What shall you do? Joel 2:13 gives clear instructions for us to rend our hearts and not our garments.
Are you ready for God to take out your stony heart and give you a heart of flesh, as Ezekiel 36:26 describes it? Call upon the Lord, and He will hear you and create in you a clean heart, one that is pure and fully dedicated to Him.
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