The Pure Heart

God of every blessing, I invite You to shape my soul with Your words and inspire my life through Your works. Teach me to walk in the way of blessing.

Pause and pray

Read Matthew 5:1-8

Jesus is speaking to a crowd of people who are accustomed to following strict rules and regulations to purify themselves and become right with God. Everything from what they ate, to how they did business, to when they rested was spelled out in the books of the law.

In one sentence, Jesus turns everything upside down. He proclaims a new way of encountering God that does not rely upon outward actions or rule following. Instead, it is about examining the attitudes and motivations of the secret, inner place of the heart.

Am I trying to make myself right with God by my external actions? Am I trying to prove myself ‘good’ or ‘worthy’ by what I do; or in comparison to what others do?

Lord, I invite You, in the words of Psalm 139 to ‘Search me God, and know my heart’ (Ps 139:23).

Pause and pray

God, I bless Your Church today and name the communities and congregations I know locally. In a world that is so focused on outward appearances, and in the midst of online broadcasting and social media influence, purify our hearts so that we are focused solely on You.

Pause and pray

I can’t purify my own heart - I’ve tried. No amount of doing or striving will accomplish the task. Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes that, ‘The only way to have a pure heart is to realise you have an impure heart…’* It is only when I give up trying to cover up, when I acknowledge my need for God’s help, that I can be transformed from the inside out.

Jesus, I am so grateful that because of Your life, Your death and Your resurrection, I can say that, ‘it is by grace [I] have been saved, through faith – and this is not from [myself], it is the gift of God.’ (Ephesians 2:8)

Pause and pray

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Psalm 51:10-12

* Dr Martyn Lloyd Jones, Studies on the Sermon on the Mount (Volume 1) p108.