Have you ever tried to look through a dirty window? or perhaps your glasses have become smudged and things don’t look quite as true as they should? This past week, I wrote the Scripture Writing Schedule 3.2 on “The Heart.” The memory verse was Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” A clean heart – what does that mean? How do we get a clean heart? How can we keep it clean? Jesus taught that “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8) I want to see God – how about you?
As strange as it may sound, we become “clean” by being “washed in the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14). We “are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. into His death to have access to His blood” (Romans 6:4). To keep our heart clean, we must limit what we expose it to. It might be that we need to make some changes in our lives – like change the channel, change the radio station, or change some of the people that we hang around with, if they are leading us astray. We live in a sinful world, and it takes work to keep our hearts clean. Are you putting forth the effort?
We know that “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (I Samuel 16:7b), and from the heart, He can tell what is most important to us. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:34). He declared the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord our God with all of our heart, and with all of our soul, and with all of our mind” (Matthew 22:37). My friends, “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23)
Every February 14, millions of heart shaped boxes of candy, flowers, and cards are exchanged with those that we love. May we also spend some time thanking our heavenly Father, “Who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. . .” Simply blessed, Courtney