Be pure in heart and watch the spirit of your speech

In Matthew 5 Jesus calls every believer to grow and mature in the beatitudes or also known as blessings. These eight beatitudes are of the highest value to God. Jesus is teaching that this is the heart that attracts the blessing of our Father. Hence we should aggressively seek to lay hold of each of these beatitudes until they are the true fragrance of our lives.

It’s not enough to know about poverty of spirit, meekness or purity of heart. We must become poor in spirit, be meek people and purify our hearts and minds before God. It’s not enough to know about mercy, we are to be merciful people. As we mature in these beatitudes it will lead us to having great impact in the world (Matthew 5:13-14). Always remember that your lifestyle in and of itself will be the greatest witness that comes from you. Your words will avail very little if your lifestyle does not reflect what you speak of.One of the beatitudes speaks of being pure in heart, Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Consider what God says about those that are indeed found pure in heart. Jesus says they shall see God! What a profound reward for those who cultivate a pure heart before Jesus. This is a provoking invitation and calling.

Purity of heart is the place of intimate communion where God is the greatest reward to the human heart. It is the focused gaze of love with the purest motive of serving and obeying Jesus. Purity of heart has to do with the things that motivate our actions. It has more to do with why we do the things we do than it has to do with what we actually do. It is the purifying of the inward place where fleshly desires have corrupted us.

Jesus says the ones that purify their hearts will be rewarded, they shall see God. What does He mean by this? I’m sure there’s an ocean of meaning that I have yet to discover but I do believe one of the areas He’s speaking of is the revelation of God as we study His Word. In Ephesians 1:17 Paul prays that we would receive a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of God. He’s praying that God, by His Spirit, would reveal God to our minds and hearts as we pursue Him.

Did you know that to the degree that we purify our minds and hearts before God there is a direct impact on the revelation of God we receive in prayer and study? I tell students all the time that the purity of our hearts and minds or lack of greatly enables or disables our Bible study. I long to purify my mind and heart and rid the things that would taint me so that I would be able to see God as I search for Him in His Word. As we set our hearts and minds to pursue and embrace purity we attract the blessing of our Father to see Him. This is the promise of the beatitude.

There are many fronts that we must wage war in regards to sin as we seek to purify our heart. One of the fronts I want to highlight is our speech. Scripture informs us of the connection of our mouth and speech to the purity of heart (Proverbs 22:11, 15:26, Psalm 12:6, Matthew 5:22, 15:11, 18, 1 Timothy 4:12, 5:1-2).

Mostly I am thinking of the spirit in which we speak. Of course we are to abstain from filthy words (Colossians 3:8). But there’s more than just not saying bad words that can taint our hearts. When we speak in the wrong spirit towards or about someone we are sowing in the flesh and will reap corruption of the heart (Galatians 6:8). The sowing and reaping principle applies to our speech. It is critical that we resist the flesh in regards to our speech. Jesus taught us to speak in the opposite spirit, to bless and pray for our enemies. As we do this we are guarding and cultivating purity in the inward place of our heart before Jesus.

The rule that I have always operated by in regards to my speech is that if I cannot speak in a godly spirit to or about a person or situation I don’t speak at all. I take my offense to God and hash it out with Him. He has the ability to change my heart about a situation and give me wisdom to speak into it if it’s necessary.

Beloved the promise from God is that we’ll see God and grown in our revelation of Him as we radically pursue purity of heart. There’s no greater experience for us than when God reveals God to the human spirit. When He touches me with revelation of who He is I’m exhilarated in my love for Him and in my joy to be alive. Let us continue on in this journey of life while committing to be a people pure in heart.

God give us grace today to reach and press into Your calling of being pure. Give us grace to resist sin and embrace righteousness. We can not do this in our own strength and striving. It takes God to love and obey God. Holy Spirit help us. I will do my part and resist sin and operate in a godly spirit. I will be quick to repent when I stumble and I will fill my mind and heart with Your Word. Thank you for Your perfect leadership Jesus.

Be blessed,
Wes