Archive for 24. April 2008

Steps to a Pure Heart

Good Morning: 

The past couple of days we’ve been talking about purity and the heart.  If we put the two lessons together, then we will see that purity of heart comes by a “cutting away” or pruning. 

So the heart, which is the seat of emotions, the will, mind, intellect, is made pure by in essence “going through”    Remember, the reason for pruning is so that the highest yield possible will come forth.  To experience the abundant life that Christ came to provide and to possess this “pure heart, we must go through the following steps: 

(1)  Poverty of Spirit- an emptiness of our own self righteousness and realizing that we cannot do anything without God.  We need him for all things and once we begin giving up our self-righteous we can begin allowing the word of God to transform our heart.

(2)  Meekness- Meekness has to do with accepting the will of God for our lives and knowing that God allows and is in control of all things.  A meek person does not resist or fight against the “will of God” but is one that walks humbly with an attitude of submission.  

(3)  Mourn-  Those who mourn are concerned about offending God.  The mourning is towards the fact that when we sin, we have offended God and we should have a sorrowful and repenting attitude.

(4)  Hunger and Thirst – We should always have a desire to go higher in God. We should crave it as one craves food and water when they are desperately famished.  The object of our hunger and thirst is righteousness.

(5)  Mercy-  As Christians, we should always be in a reconciliation mode and be willing to freely offer mercy and forgiveness as freely as God offers it to us even though we may have been rightfully offended.  The above are a brief summary of the beatitudes we have studied thus far, now after all of these, you can easily see how it would lead to “pure of heart.”   Being in right relationship with God and our brothers and sisters causes singleness or purity of heart.     

Tomorrow, we will look at the last part of this beatitude.  “for they shall see God.”  We will talk about what it means to “SEE GOD.” Don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily. 

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