Seeing God

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8

AS WE BEGIN

After losing her sight during infancy through a doctor’s negligence, Fanny J. Crosby went on to compose over 9,000 hymns, including “Blessed Assurance,” “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross,” and “I Am Thine, O Lord.” Crosby’s voluminous output was indebted to her extraordinary mind. According to one of her collaborators, Hugh Main, she could dictate two hymns simultaneously, alternating between the lines of each poem and keeping two secretaries busy.

This, however, was only part of her ministry. For over two decades, she visited the marginalized and downtrodden of society at Manhattan’s rescue missions. Crosby often motivated her listeners by pointing to the end of life when believers encounter Christ face-to-face. Through the centuries, the church has described this culminating hope as the beatific vision (1 Corinthians 13:12).

DEVOTIONAL INSIGHT

God examines our inner attitudes, evaluates our motives, and observes our private behavior. Such heart motivations and intentions are the focal point of the kingdom.

OBSERVATIONS

The trouble is that the sinful heart of those who don’t know God is turned in on itself and away from God. This results in falsehood and pride, says Augustine, which lead into further isolation and conflict. The heart is the core problem. Even our most humble and altruistic deeds—our service to others and pursuit of the common good—inevitably become occasions for pride. Our pretensions to purity often conceal a secret sin.

Speaking to God, Augustine says: “You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” He uses the singular “heart” and not plural “hearts,” suggesting that humanity shares a common heart and thus a common need—for our emptiness to be filled with God’s purifying presence. This is precisely what God’s Spirit accomplishes through Scripture, a transformation that breaks our terminal trance.

This experience—the movement from blindness to spiritual sight—is the way of salvation. Addressing his congregation in Hippo, Augustine preached, “Our whole business in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen.” This is a seeing that surpasses sight. It is the vision of God.

APPLICATION

This Beatitude graciously reminds us that the focus of our sight is inextricably linked with the focus of our heart. Impurity and a vision of God do not go together. We who have looked to the One who was raised for our justification are not saved to continue in lives of impurity. Rather, we are saved from impurity to life anew, a gradual and messy process (from our point of view) that increasingly cherishes Christ over the vain things that charm us most.

Those who are seeking purity are also seeking the Lord, and, like a thirsty man in the desert, will find both and quench their thirst forever. Where’s your heart?