SEEING IS BELIEVING
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matt. 5:8, R.S.V.
When you love someone very much, being apart is agony. Then comes that wonderful day when you see each other again. You have only to watch couples at the airport to know that is a happy occasion.
Our love for God causes us to anticipate the day we can be with Him forever. There's only one detail that might spoil our eagerness. We have to be pure in heart. And according to the latest tally, that means sinless! Sinless! Does that give your heart pause? Who of us can claim to be even close to such an ideal? Why, I still eat Hershey bars occasionally.
Impurity in water makes it cloudy. Impurities in glass can render it opaque. And so it is with the human heart. We react wrongly because we have things in our hearts that distort our perception of situations. Our emotions are clouded with hurts and angers. Even our best understandings may not be accurate.
"The heart is the most deceitful of all things, desperately sick; who can fathom it? I, the Lord, search the mind and test the heart" (Jer. 17:9, 10, N.E.B.).
Our hearts are sick, and God has a solution: "God has not sent his Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it--through him. Any man who believes in him is not judged at all. It is the one who will not believe who stands already condemned, because he will not believe in the character of God's only Son" (John 3:17, 18, Phillips).
Believing in the character of God's only Son is to believe in the character of God Himself. In Jesus' prayer for His disciples (and us!), He said, "Father of all goodness the world has not known you, but I have known you and these men now know that you have sent me. I have made your self known to them" (chap. 17:25, 26, Phillips).
The misconceptions we have about God cloud our minds. We are only acting accordingly when we relate to life in less than healthy ways. The removal of these misconceptions allows us to see God, full of goodness and truth. And we will act accordingly, because the patterns of our thinking will have been healed. This is what it means to be pure in heart.
Incidentally, it's God who is waiting at the "airport" for us to come home!
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matt. 5:8, R.S.V.
When you love someone very much, being apart is agony. Then comes that wonderful day when you see each other again. You have only to watch couples at the airport to know that is a happy occasion.
Our love for God causes us to anticipate the day we can be with Him forever. There's only one detail that might spoil our eagerness. We have to be pure in heart. And according to the latest tally, that means sinless! Sinless! Does that give your heart pause? Who of us can claim to be even close to such an ideal? Why, I still eat Hershey bars occasionally.
Impurity in water makes it cloudy. Impurities in glass can render it opaque. And so it is with the human heart. We react wrongly because we have things in our hearts that distort our perception of situations. Our emotions are clouded with hurts and angers. Even our best understandings may not be accurate.
"The heart is the most deceitful of all things, desperately sick; who can fathom it? I, the Lord, search the mind and test the heart" (Jer. 17:9, 10, N.E.B.).
Our hearts are sick, and God has a solution: "God has not sent his Son into the world to pass sentence upon it, but to save it--through him. Any man who believes in him is not judged at all. It is the one who will not believe who stands already condemned, because he will not believe in the character of God's only Son" (John 3:17, 18, Phillips).
Believing in the character of God's only Son is to believe in the character of God Himself. In Jesus' prayer for His disciples (and us!), He said, "Father of all goodness the world has not known you, but I have known you and these men now know that you have sent me. I have made your self known to them" (chap. 17:25, 26, Phillips).
The misconceptions we have about God cloud our minds. We are only acting accordingly when we relate to life in less than healthy ways. The removal of these misconceptions allows us to see God, full of goodness and truth. And we will act accordingly, because the patterns of our thinking will have been healed. This is what it means to be pure in heart.
Incidentally, it's God who is waiting at the "airport" for us to come home!
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