“Create In Me A Pure Heart, O God And Renew A Steadfast Spirit Within Me”
Psalm 51:10 NIV
Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). To be pure in heart is to be clean from sin’s contamination in our life. Purity simply cannot exist in a contaminated heart. That’s a pretty scary thought. Especially when I know that this “purity of heart” Jesus is teaching about encompasses every part of me. It involves my choices, desires, thoughts, intentions and every other imaginable aspect of me.
I will not lose heart, and I don’t want you to either, because our God is bigger than we are. Nothing is impossible for Him. It is not impossible for Him to transform our hearts.
Jesus Has Captured My Heart
Jesus is such a wonderful teacher. Actually, He is the “Master Teacher”. I understand why He didn’t start with “Pure In Heart”. He wanted to capture my heart first. He first of all asked for my broken, needy heart (Poor In Spirit). Next, He asked for my grieving heart (Mourning). Not just for my losses in life, but my grieving, repentful of my sins heart. Then He asked me to become meek, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and to be merciful. He has been asking me to surrender so that He might capture my heart.
About three years ago, I was a part of a women’s mission trip. Our destination was Mexico, to share Christ in a women’s prison. It was a very intense experience. We were instructed in what not to bring in with us, not to wear certain colors and how to conduct ourselves. In short, we took NOTHING personal in with us and were searched (yes, I said searched). At each checkpoint, we received an ink-stamp. One of the stamps was the word captured, in Spanish “capturado”. I had a life changing experience that day. At one point, one of the other women in our group and our translator were led into an off-limits area. I watched as they were being led into the area. The next thing I remember was a touch on my shoulder, being led to follow these two women. When I looked back to see who was guiding me to follow, there was no one there. When these two woman (with prison guard present) asked me how I got there, I couldn’t explain it. I still can’t. It was very heart wrenching. There were two women (prisoners) huddled together on a bed, in a nasty and dirty little room. There was rice and tortillas sitting on a table that looked as if they had been there a while. One of the women was very sick. She wept and asked us to get in touch with her family, because they did not know where she was. The guard was quick to tell her and us that to do that would be unacceptable. All we could do was pray for these two lost, captured women. Today’s Beatitude has brought all of this back to my mind. The initial impact on me of this experience was a picture of our fate as sinners. We all come to Jesus with nothing and are helpless without Him. Today, I also see a picture of allowing Jesus to “Capture My Heart”. If I am to be “Pure In Heart”, He wants my heart just as it was in my need for salvation. I could not save myself on my own then, and I cannot become “Pure In Heart” on my own now.
I have tried to get back into that prison with my friend, who was our translator. The week before we were to go in, there was a prison riot. It still seems impossible to get back in. I will never forget the picture of those two women so captured and helpless. It will be forever engraved on my heart. It is a reminder to me of where Jesus wants my heart, “Capturado” in His presence.
Our “Capturado” Marks
Just as my friends and I were “Capturado” together in that prison, may you and I encourage one another to allow Jesus to capture our hearts. “Purity of Heart” will only be found in the presence of the Lord. He is able to transform our hearts, so that “We shall see God”.
Key #6 to spiritual blessedness is to become pure in heart. The gift we receive is to see God in our everyday lives and in eternity.
Question to Ponder: Has Jesus captured your heart? Pray, ask Him to make your heart pure. Write down your prayer. ___________________________________________________________________
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Scripture to Ponder: 2 Timothy 1:7
This entry was posted on Friday, April 30th, 2010 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Bible Studies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
