Blessed Are the Pure in Heart, For They Will See God
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” Matthew 5:8 (NIV)
The Psalmist asked the question we all want answered, “Who may ascend the mountain of the LORD? Who may stand in His holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart. …” Psalm 24:3-4a (NIV) The Psalmist is asking, “Who gets to go to heaven? Who gets to see God?” The answer is the ones with clean hands and a pure heart. To see a pure and holy God, I need a pure and holy heart. The problem is that sin has corrupted my heart. Jeremiah put it like this in Jeremiah 17:9 (NIV) when he wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” How often has your own heart deceived you? The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart. We don’t even know our own hearts. Only God does. That’s why David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)
In Jeremiah 17:10a, the Bible says, “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind. …” When God searches our hearts, we find the problem. We all suffer from heart trouble. It’s so serious it will require a heart transplant. When David’s heart betrayed him, he cried out in Psalm 51:10 (NIV/KJV) “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”
But there’s good news! In Jeremiah 24:7 (NIV), God says, “I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart.” Only God can make a heart transplant like that. As the Great Physician, He is a heart specialist. Ezekiel describes what God does like this in Ezekiel 36:26 (NIV) “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
We receive that new heart the moment we turn to Christ from our sins, the moment we admit we need one. Like David, the moment we cry out, “Create in me a pure heart, O God. …” He gives us a heart transplant. He takes out that old stony heart of sin that is so deceitful and impure and gives us a pure heart that we may see Him! In Ephesians 3:17a (NLT) the Bible says, “Then Christ will make His home in your hearts as you trust in Him.” His presence in our lives gives us a pure heart.
With this new heart, the writer of Hebrews says, “So let's come near God with pure hearts and a confidence that comes from having faith. Let's keep our hearts pure, our consciences free from evil, and our bodies washed with clean water.” Hebrews 10:22 (CEV) We keep our hearts pure through the daily washing of God’s Word so that we can approach Him with confidence.
The word for “pure” in this beatitude is “katharos.” It is the root word for our word “catharsis” meaning to cleanse or purge. It refers to an emotional release and a spiritual cleansing that creates in us a pure heart, free of the pain of the past. Those past hurts, habits and hang-ups prevent us from seeing God. Only through the cathartic confession of our sins can God do that deeper inner healing that creates in us a pure heart so that we may now see Him in our lives.
As you pray today, if you’re struggling to see God in your life, ask Him to search your heart and point out anything that may be blurring your vision. It could be something you’ve put in place of Him in your life that needs to be confessed. Ask Him to remove it and keep your heart pure.