Blessed Are The Pure In Heart

Scripture For The Day 

 January 30, 2023

 "Blessed Are The Pure in Heart" 

Beatitudes continue: I apologize for the interruption. Due to a snowstorm that knocked out our electricity I wasn’t able to use my laptop or post and had to conserve the battery on my phone. For those not from here, we are forecasted to have an ice storm this week, so we may or may not lose power again, that’s not my business. But wanted to let you know in case our study gets interrupted again. I hope you are enjoying digging deeper into The Word of God as I am.

We are truly BLESSED! 

“Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” – Matthew  5-8 

Pure? Whew! That’s a tough one. Let’s begin with the Greek word for “pure”. It is katharos. Kataros means to be clean, blameless, guiltless. Wow! Can you describe yourself as blameless? Or clean? It also refers to purifying things by fire as well as by pruning. I love The Word of God. Our God is so poetic and I have always loved poetry. Throughout His Word, he uses symbolism and metaphors to get His point across. The people in that day understood very well what it meant to purify by fire. Gardeners and Farmers understand what it means to prune; you must cut the bad parts away to allow the good to grow. Jesus speaks of that Himself in John 15: 1-17. We can read several places in God’s Word about being purified by fire and how Jesus would baptize us with The Holy Spirit and fire. Malachi describes that fire as a ‘refiners’ fire” in Malachi 3:2.  This past SS class I reminded my class that everything goes back to the heart. Not the pumping organ inside our chest but our essence, our being, our spirit, our soul. It’s how we feel and think and believe. Only when we humble ourselves and hold ourselves accountable will we grow in The LORD>

So how can we be pure in heart?   

There is only one way we can be pure of heart and it’s not by our works, they are like dirty rags. But it is by holding ourselves accountable. We need to first ask for The LORD’s help, truly and sincerely give our hearts over to Him in order for Him to cleanse us out. We can’t do it alone.  Being pure in heart keeps us focused on God.  Being pure is not just about keeping your heart clean from the nastiness of the world but it goes even deeper than that. There is no room for jealousy, anger, or hypocrisy or me, me, me, in a heart that is fully focused on The LORD. When we accept Jesus into our hearts we are redeemed, we are saved. But then He begins a work in us- a continued sanctification that will not be fulfilled until we go home to be with Him. A pure heart focuses on Him.

We are, I am a work in progress and He continues to purify my heart each and every day.  And some days I bet He needs to use extra elbow grease. But first, we have to turn our hearts and our lives over to Him.  Move over Mr. Clean, you ain’t got nothing on My God. 

Change my heart O GOD- cleanse us and purify us. 



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