Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.
There are two steps in making and keeping something pure.
First, you must remove all of the impurities. This is often quite a long process, usually involving heat—lots of heat! At the end of the process you have a pure element free from any contamination.
Then, in order to preserve this purity, you have to refrain from mixing anything with the pure substance. The temptation is often to introduce a less valuable substance to dilute the one you have just purified. This is often done with gold. 24-carat gold is fine (99.9% pure), 18-carat gold is 75% gold, 12-carat gold is 50% gold, and so forth. Introducing copper and silver (nickle or palladium in the case of so-called “white gold”) to pure gold changes its properties as well as its value.
Likewise, there are two steps in establishing and maintaining purity of heart.
First comes the process of removing the impurities of pride, selfishness, fear and the myriad derivatives and variations of these noxious roots. Once people repent of these sins and receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, they are immediately made pure in God’s sight as Christ’s purity is credited to their accounts. But, in addition, they begin a life-long process of being transformed into Christ’s likeness. This process also involves heat—the firey trails used by God to refine our character. The result is a heart that ever more closely resembles the pure heart of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We must then take steps to preserve the purity of our hearts. Temptations will come to dilute the solitary devotion of our hearts to God with other far less valuable pursuits. Introducing anything that is in competition with the supremacy of Jesus Christ in our hearts is to sink into a form of idolatry and to cheapen our hearts through what amounts to spiritual prostitution.
But for those purify their hearts and refrain from diluting their pure devotion there is a promise of great reward: to see God. All people will one day stand before God and see Him in His glorious splendour. This will be an ominously terrifying experience for those whose hearts remain stained with sin, but the pure in heart will stand blameless before Him and be given the wonderful privilege of spending all eternity gazing in awe and wonder at the Object of their devotion.
Today, let’s pray that…
· Unsaved friends and family members will realise the impure state of their hearts and they would repent of their sins and allow God to purify their hearts.
· We would resist the temptation to dilute the purity of our own hearts by introducing anything that might compete with Jesus Christ’s number one place.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Saturday, June 5, 2010
The Beatitudes 5
Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
There are two groups of people to whom we need to show mercy: those that are in need and those who have sinned against us. We may be inclined to think that those in need are more deserving of our mercy while those who have sinned against us are less deserving of any kindness from us. But that is to misunderstand the very nature of mercy.
True mercy cannot be earned. To be merciful is to have compassion for someone who is helpless and to act on that compassion by extending help.
The helplessness of those in need is often more obvious: the lack of material possessions of those who are poor; the deep sadness of those who have lost a loved one; the loneliness of the outsider; the pain of the injured. Few of us would be able to ignore these needs without experiencing a tug on our conscience. Most of us would respond to these needs with acts of mercy.
In contrast, the helplessness of those who have sinned against us is usually less obvious: the disguised insecurity of the bully; the hidden fears of those who think only of themselves; the deep emotional wounds of those who lash out in anger; the spiritual emptiness of the wicked. On the surface the angry, the selfish, the bully and the wicked seem less in need of mercy, but they are as helpless as the needy and every much as deserving. Forgiving those who have sinned against us is an act of mercy.
Jesus said, “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28 NIV). Loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who wish you harm, and praying for those who mistreat you are all acts of mercy.
The Beatitude we are concerned with today states that those who offer mercy will themselves receive mercy. It is a sobering thought that the degree to which we offer mercy to others will be the degree to which we receive mercy.
Today, let’s pray that:
· We will be sensitive to the plight of the needy as well as the circumstances of those who have sinned against us.
· We will have the grace to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who wish us harm and to pray for those who mistreat us.
Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
There are two groups of people to whom we need to show mercy: those that are in need and those who have sinned against us. We may be inclined to think that those in need are more deserving of our mercy while those who have sinned against us are less deserving of any kindness from us. But that is to misunderstand the very nature of mercy.
True mercy cannot be earned. To be merciful is to have compassion for someone who is helpless and to act on that compassion by extending help.
The helplessness of those in need is often more obvious: the lack of material possessions of those who are poor; the deep sadness of those who have lost a loved one; the loneliness of the outsider; the pain of the injured. Few of us would be able to ignore these needs without experiencing a tug on our conscience. Most of us would respond to these needs with acts of mercy.
In contrast, the helplessness of those who have sinned against us is usually less obvious: the disguised insecurity of the bully; the hidden fears of those who think only of themselves; the deep emotional wounds of those who lash out in anger; the spiritual emptiness of the wicked. On the surface the angry, the selfish, the bully and the wicked seem less in need of mercy, but they are as helpless as the needy and every much as deserving. Forgiving those who have sinned against us is an act of mercy.
Jesus said, “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28 NIV). Loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who wish you harm, and praying for those who mistreat you are all acts of mercy.
The Beatitude we are concerned with today states that those who offer mercy will themselves receive mercy. It is a sobering thought that the degree to which we offer mercy to others will be the degree to which we receive mercy.
Today, let’s pray that:
· We will be sensitive to the plight of the needy as well as the circumstances of those who have sinned against us.
· We will have the grace to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who wish us harm and to pray for those who mistreat us.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
