November 15: THE RADICAL KINGDOM #6

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:8) Be ye being constantly pure in heart! This seems the most inaccessible. There is such a continuing sowing, even bombardment of the mind with impure ideas from the television, news, movie previews, and general conversation. How radical it would be to live one’s life with purity of heart!
What is purity of heart? Not sinless perfection; that is not what our Lord is asking of us. He wants a whole personality, mind, will, and emotions purged of worldliness. A rightness in the mind, not guilty of spiritual adultery. No lusting in the heart!
There is also the idea of singleness of motive. Not just outward actions under control but the very purpose of life to follow the model of Jesus in personal holiness. You know, chastity was a mark of early Christianity because it releases people from the greater bondage to the flesh and fleshly desires. This demands of us a most exacting self-evaluation. When someone complimented John Bunyan, he replied, “the Devil has already told me.”
How can we see God? People see what they want to see or what they are capable of seeing. There is the ultimate hope of seeing Jesus face-to-face after we die. Sensitivity and surrender will open the believer’s eyes to see God at work constantly here in the world. Acts 14:17 says, “God has not left himself without a witness”. In all that God has touched; for instance, in a world of beauty and poison in plants, the bee sips only the sweet and helpful. In the stories about King Arthur’s Roundtable it is related that Sir Galahad saw the Holy Grail because his “heart was pure.”
Being a man or woman after God’s own heart will give you discernment to see God. John Wesley once said that he read the daily paper to “see what God is doing in the world.”
You want to see God each day? Prepare your heart.

“Help us to surrender to You as Lord, Dear Jesus, so we can bring every part
of life under your single purpose for our lives. Thank You! Amen”