The Journey to Freedom from Sexual Shameنموونە

A Pure Life, Reimagined

There is a scripture that has been the source of alternating hope and despair for people throughout history. It's a simple yet eternally profound statement, as are all of Jesus' words: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."

It generates hope, because it proclaims God is near. It results in despair, when shame and accusation creep in, because a pure heart seems impossible.

After all we've endured, after the darkness of the pit, after being raised up and led on a journey to green pastures, what still threatens to ensnare us and lock us into hiding is the belief that we must make ourselves pure. That we will see God if... if we stop doing that thing long enough, if we stop lusting for enough time, if we check enough behavioral boxes.

But no amount of avoidance or abstinence has ever made something pure. Just as water must be moved by forces outside of itself to be cleansed, so our hearts must be purified by something, someone outside of ourselves.

His name is Jesus.

He came "to purify a people for Himself." How? By walking the very path we're on—birth, growth, poverty, misunderstanding, loss, grief, rejection, mockery, pain, death. Yet all without impurity, without sin, that His resurrection, His power, and His purity might become ours.

How do we receive this? We believe it. We stake our all on the truth that He is purifying me, that He is with me, that I will see Him...in small ways today and face to face one day soon. If we put all of our hope in Him, if we trust Him with all of our heart and lean not on our own (mis)understanding, our hearts will be purified, and we will see Him in new ways.

The irony in Jesus' statement about seeing God was that those listening to him were literally seeing God... without knowing it. Yet even then His presence was purifying their hearts, so that soon, even those who abandoned Him, would have scales fall from their eyes and behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin, and shame, of the world.

That's freedom. And it's available to you, today.

Have you believed you must make yourself pure? What changes if you believe Jesus is purifying you today?

Find out more about pureHOPE at www.purehope.net