Is Your Heart Pure?

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

I was at Hannaford the other day, and I stopped to grab some maple syrup. As I scanned my choices, one caught my attention. On the bottle it said, “100% pure Maine maple syrup.” My first thought was, “What else would be in there?” Apparently, there could be other non-syrupy things floating around! I want my maple syrup to be pure!

When we think about the word “pure,” especially in a spiritual context, we often think of holiness–purity of thought, purity of speech, purity of action. We think about freedom from sin and evil. But there is another kind of purity, not unlike what we expect in our maple syrup–to be undiluted, without compromise. God desires in us purity of commitment, purity of motivation. He does not simply want us to be occasionally merciful, or casually servant-hearted, nor does He desire our humble worship on merely a weekly basis. God calls us to complete obedience to His word. He asks for total submission to His purposes for our lives. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus says it this way, “No one can serve two masters–either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other!” There is an old African proverb which states it this way–“The man who rides the fence will split his pants.”

How focused is your life? Are you trying to straddle the fence between serving God and loving the world? Blessed are those Christ-followers who are pure in heart. He blesses the disciple whose eyes are set on one thing–Him. That disciple will see God at work in his life.

-Pastor Mike