Beatitudes, part 6: Blessed are the Pure in Heart

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8, NIV)

This verse is probably one of my top 5 favorite verses, and very often, it’s a prayer in my heart.

Lord, help me to be pure in heart so that I might see you better. 

Many times, when we talk about purity and the Bible, we think sexual purity. Preserving our bodies from sexual sin and saving them for our spouse. But when we’re talking about purity here, we’re talking about moral purity rather than ceremonial or physical purity. 

Instead of an obedient or honorable heart, we’re more so talking about an undivided heart. A heart so focused and unadulterated that it clarifies our vision. We can’t see God rightly with a heart that is pulled every which way. And an impure, unfocused, divided heart isn’t able to see the Lord in a way that helps us know Him.

So how does the Lord purify our hearts so we can see Him better? The key is that we would hunger and thirst for righteousness in a way that makes us seek the Lord ravenously. When we desire to know the Lord, we search Him out in His Word. The more we seek Him, the more we find Him and the more we know Him. The deeper our pursuit of the Lord takes us, the more we become like Christ. And that’s how we become merciful like Jesus, pure like Jesus, and righteous like Jesus. And the more we get to know Him through His Word, the more we will know Him for who He is– not who other people have told us He is or who we want Him to be.

How often are we guilty of that: forcing God to fit the mold we’ve made for Him or allowing someone else to form our idea of who God is?

The truth is, we do it very often. We take our notions of what our childhood pastor told us, what our parents believed, or what our own ideas are of who God is. In all reality, though, God could be none of those things. But if we never challenge those preconceived notions and hold them against the Truth of the Bible, then we’re worshiping and sharing a Jesus that doesn’t exist. 

The Bible is the only way we can get to know God for who He is. When we are hungry to devour it, and we do so in a way that lets the Holy Spirit break down our false ideas and convict us, then we have the opportunity to know God for who He is. When we can approach Him in that way and allow God to show us who He is, then we can see Him. And when we see Him, we achieve a greater intimacy with Him. Just think: how would we be able to be intimate with a lover that desperately only wanted to hold on to all the ideas about you that other people gave them? That wouldn’t add up to a very deep relationship. Instead, when we want intimacy with someone, we discover that person for ourselves. 

That’s what we need to do with the Lord. And not only can our preconceived notions cloud our vision to see God rightly, but our sin can as well. How can we really see God if we’re still holding on to our sins? That’s why Jesus strikes at the heart with this Beatitude: because out of our hearts, everything else flows. In this promise, Jesus gets at the root of all things. When our hearts are transformed, everything else follows and changes. 

Once we can let go of that sin and shame, our hearts can be attuned to a more mature faith and a deeper relationship with God. That’s a closeness to God that we could never anticipate or dream of. In truth, the Lord always exceeds our expectations. Our bond with Christ can be stronger, deeper, and more passionate than we can understand and it all starts with throwing off the blindness of our sin and surrendering our lives  in totality to the Lord so He can give us an undivided heart.

We serve a God who wants us to know Him. He wants to share Himself with us. But we can’t really see Him if our hearts are not in pursuit of Him. God draws us near to Him and saves us, but if our passion for Him is never stirred up and if we think we can just sit back on our hands without seeking Him, we will never really know Him.

The pure in heart are truly blessed, because it means they get to see God rightly for who He is. Not for who they thought He was, or who they wanted Him to be.

Who He is. In all His beauty and splendor. And they get to call Him their own, walking with Him all the days of their lives and into eternity. 

We don’t have to wait to know Him this way, friends. We get to do that now. He has already made Himself available to us through His Son, and what a blessing that is.