pure heart

A New Heart

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A few weeks ago, I glanced at my smart watch to discover it was showing my resting heart rate as 48 beats per minute. I went online and discovered that for my age, this low heart rate is associated with elite athletes!

As a young person, athleticism was not what you associated with me, and even now I would rather read a book than play touch football. But still, thousands of kilometres of bike riding over the last few years must have persuaded my heart that it needs to get in shape.

The human heart is a marvellous organ that faithfully pumps blood around the body without a pause every second of our lives. It automatically adjusts to the amount of work or exercise that we are doing, sending oxygen and food to every cell of our body.

The physical heart is so critical to human living that we use it as a metaphor for our deeply held values and beliefs. While, for most people, the physical heart is a reliable and trustworthy organ, the spiritual heart is quite the opposite.

People often say “Follow your heart”, but the Bible warns us that “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick.” No doubt Adolf Hitler followed his heart, with disastrous results for millions of people and for the whole world.

We are born into a world that is corrupted, and we quickly learn to live by that standard. Not even the most “saintly” or “righteous” of people are truly perfect. We all have our moments, days or years where we are not the people we would like to be.

Christians speak of being “born again”, which basically means allowing God to give us a new heart that is untouched by sin. To be born again means to recognise that I am a sinner, that I have offended God and I need forgiveness. From that place, I can ask God to cleanse my spirit and rule my life.

If you need a new heart, or a new start with God, say that sorry prayer to God right now. Reach out to a church, and ask them to help you start in this journey of faith.

A Blessing

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“Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God” Matthew 5:8

We were practising prophecy on one another at cell group, and one of our members received this scripture for me.

I’ve always struggled with the Beatitudes because I’ve never really been sure whether they should be interpreted as commandments, exhortations or statements of fact. In many ways they seem unreal, over-spiritual, confusing.

As for pure in heart, well that’s definitely a work in progress.

So, I’ve been thinking, praying and researching this for several days trying to see what Jesus meant by it and how it applies to me.

“Blessed” means a “blessing on” or “God’s favour is on.”  The word “blessed” makes me think of some guru who has overcome all the problems of daily living and now exits on some other plane. Sometimes we confuse it with good luck or a vague sense of being well off. But really Jesus is saying that God has a special regard for those whose hearts are pure.

“Pure in heart” in English suggests 100% sin free. But actually it means something more like simplicity, singleness of purpose, lacking in secret selfish agendas. I think of Nathanael. “When Jesus saw Nathanael coming towards him, he said of him, ‘Here is truly an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit!” (John 1:47). Other translations use the word guile here.

There is no suggestion of sinlessness here, just a singleness of purpose, a “What you see is what you get” lifestyle.

Here is the awesome part. It is those people, who are open and transparent, accepting of others as they are, who get to see God.  This is not in the future when we die, for everyone sees God then. No, this is saying it’s these down to earth people who sincerely love God who experience Him, who get the revelations, who learn to worship Him and receive His love. Wow- what a promise!

If you want these things, the key lies in learning to be open and transparent, losing all selfish ambitions and just following Jesus in simplicity,