Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
You're blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
for they will see God.
There is this thread throughout the Scriptures where God continually proclaims that our fleeting flesh, this momentary skin, this transient outer shell we call our bodies are fleeting. They appeal for a time, but they will fade.
In 1 Samuel, we see God's character illuminated when it is declared, "Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
In this circumstance, we see that God declares that leadership should not be based on the possession of power, the presence of beauty, the holdings of wealth, but a pure heart. Interesting.
If this reality applies to one of the most important themes in the Scriptures, leadership, can we reason that it applies to other situations as well?
It seems like Jesus would point to that being the case.
Check out Luke 6 when Jesus says, "The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks." (Translation: It all stems from the heart...fall in love with me and you will begin to see your evilness in comparison to my holiness and the natural outcome will be my Spirit working in you and diminishing your desire to trade Creator for created. But the Gospel is not mere moral uprightness- a focus on proper behavior- it's a shift in motivation!)
I know our natural tendency is to focus on the outside. TRUST ME. It is hard-wired into our very DNA. It's called sin- it sucks. However, there is this greater reality- the Kingdom of God that is continuously inviting us into the way God intended things to be. And this is clear in the text concerning the way God designed things: the inside of a person is the greater reality.
But we so easily fall into the pattern of elevating outward appearance to highest pursuit, sometimes at the forfeit of our soul.
Jesus said, "What is it to gain the whole world, but lose your soul?"
9th grade guy translation: Is Megan Fox really hot enough to allow you to forfeit your heart in the process by elevating her outward appearance so high that she is causing you to masturbate? (Let's not be so naive to think that Satan doesn't play a part in this...)
(And yes I said the "m" word...Satan desires that we keep topics like these in the darkness, not allowing Jesus' light to transform us...do you really want to be a part of Satan's plans just because we haven't talked about it in the past because of our religious rituals?)
10th grade girl translation: Is getting your body noticed by others really more important than being consumed by your Creator and his love for you?
Pursue a pure heart today.
No let me re-phrase that: Pursue Jesus today. And then let him clean your heart.
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