Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. – (Matthew 5.8, NIV)
I just returned home from two long weekends away, the first
was at an awesome men’s retreat in Western Maryland and a second at our family’s
camp in the “wilds” of Pennsylvania for a wonderful time with my parents and
one of my children. It is amazing what you can hear and see and experience when
you clear away all the man-made noise pollution, all the man-made concrete and
steel, and the man-made light pollution… all kinds of birds and wildlife,
flowers and trees, and an incredible clear night sky dense with thousands and
thousands of shining stars (and a few shooting stars too!).
Now sometimes our lives get polluted by things that impair
our ability to see clearly, maybe impede our ability to see God and others
clearly. It’s like wearing eye-glasses. You may start noticing clouds
developing between you and what you are trying to read – strange little spots
may obstruct your view. Usually it is a simple matter of cleaning the lenses.
When you hold the glasses up to a bright light you can see the source of the
fog and the fuzziness… the lenses are smudged and spotted with dirt.
You may be at a point
in your life right now where you really need to be able to see clearly - to see
God, that is. You've got important decisions to make, and you really want to be
able to figure out God's leading; to see where God is going so you can follow
Him into His will for you. You don't want to make a mistake on this. But maybe
you're having a hard time seeing God right now. It could be time to clear
things out – clear things up — clean
things up.
In fact, in the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus described the kind of people who would be able to
see God, which you may really need right now. If you're having a hard time
figuring out what God wants, seeing where He's going in your life, these words
of Jesus may help you improve your vision — and change your view of things,
maybe change the way you see everything. He simply says in our key Scripture
text, "Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they will see God." That's Matthew 5.8, one of the “beatitudes.” If
you can't see God, you're going to wander around confused and unsure, and
pretty much your whole life will be off course. And if you're not pure in your
heart, you won't see God clearly. There's dirt on your lenses and the pollution
is distorting your vision – leaving you spiritually visually impaired and
disoriented. You've got some cleaning to do.
You may be doing all
kinds of good things to get God's guidance; you're reading His Word, you're
praying for His direction, and you're seeking godly counsel. But if there's
something impure that you are holding in your heart, it will block your view. The
Psalmist declares, “The Lord will not hear me if I hold on to
sin in my heart” (Psalm
66.18, NLV). That may be why no answer has seemed to come. God is
waiting for you to clean up what isn't pure.
Notice, this ability
and promise of seeing God comes from being pure in heart — “the pure in heart… will see God.” Being pure in heart means where
the stuff deep down inside is that no one can see but God. The bitterness and
the unforgiveness that you may be harboring, the mind that keeps wandering into
lustful fantasies, the pride that's been growing in your heart, the compromises
in your integrity, in your truthfulness, or that idol in your heart that your
holding on to and that's been drawing you slowly away from your first love —
Jesus.
God sees that junk
inside and He's saying, "I have so
much I want to show you, so much of Myself I want to share with you, so much I
have prepared for you, but I can't show it to you until you get rid of what's
coming between us."
Could it be that you
haven't been able to figure out God's leading and direction because of dirt and
pollution that's been accumulating on your spiritual lenses — that's your heart. Isn't it time you
dealt with what the real problem is? That would be the impurity in your heart.
Now
sometimes things build up and become so polluted from impurities that we need help
identifying the exact source and nature of the problem in order to get to the real
“heart of the matter” and clear
things up. King David prayed, “Who can
discern his lapses and errors? Clear me from hidden [and unconscious]
faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have
dominion over me! Then shall I be blameless, and I shall be
innocent and clear of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my [firm,
impenetrable] Rock and my Redeemer.” – (Psalm 19.12-14, AMP)
The
Holy Spirit’s sword, His word, will expose the impurities in our heart that
keep us from seeing clearly — “The Word
that God speaks is alive and active; it cuts more keenly than any two-edged
sword: it strikes through to the place where soul and spirit meet, to the
innermost intimacies of a man’s being: it exposes the very thoughts and motives
of a man’s heart. No creature has any cover from the sight of God; everything
lies naked and exposed before the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do” –
(Hebrews 4.12-13, JBP) The bright light of God’s Word shining on our hearts
(lenses) with laser-like precision will reveal the smudges, spots and stains
from sin that keep us from seeing God.
Once you acknowledge
the impurities and “come clean” by
bringing your spiritual lenses to Jesus and, with a repentant heart, confess
your sin to Him… once you are what Jesus calls one of "the pure in heart"… you'll be amazed how finally you’re able
to see God, see more clearly His answers that you need, see things that were
never before possible or even imaginable.
So let us come near to God with a sincere heart and a sure
faith, with hearts that have been purified from a guilty conscience and with
bodies washed with clean water. – (Hebrews
10.22, GNT)
Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but He has not
yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we
will be like Him, for we will see Him as He really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep
themselves pure, just as He is pure. – (1 John 3.2-3, NLT)
Since before time began no one has ever imagined, no ear
heard, no eye seen, a God like you Who works for those who wait
for Him. You meet those who happily do what is right, who keep a good memory of
the way you work. But how angry you’ve been with us! We’ve sinned and kept at
it so long! Is there any hope for us?
Can we be saved? We’re all sin-infected,
sin-contaminated. Our best efforts are grease-stained rags. We dry up like autumn leaves—sin-dried, we’re blown off by
the wind. No one prays to you or makes the effort to reach out to you
because you’ve turned away from us, left us to stew in
our sins. – (Isaiah
64.4-7, MSG)
But if we walk in the light, as He
is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus,
His Son, purifies us from all sin… If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness – (1 John 1.7, 9).
Create in me a pure heart, O God –
(Psalm 51.10a)
In a nutshell – in
Him,
Web Shepherd
