Blessed are the pure in heart – Terry Nightingale

“Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

God loves a pure heart. When King David was chosen (way back in the Old Testament) to be King of Israel it was because God saw his heart. We read, “the LORD has sought out a man after his own heart” (1 Sam 13:14). Even after some terrible mistakes, years later, his prayer to the Lord was still “Create in me a pure heart, O God,” (Ps 51:10). God saw a pure heart at the beginning of his call and David was still depending on God for purity of heart years later.

In Jesus’ day, what’s important to God has not changed: The next beatitude in our Sermon on the Mount series is, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matt 5:8).

Let’s think what it might mean to guard your heart, as we read in Proverbs 4: 23.

Our hearts, in terms of who we are, (that is, our emotions, thoughts, feelings, innermost secrets, desires, who we are deep down) are precious. They are made by God, but they are tainted by sin. Having said that, they are also being transformed by faith in Christ and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.

But that makes them vulnerable. Look at these verses in the book of Proverbs:

• ^“Anxiety weighs down the heart,
  but a kind word cheers it up” (Prov 12: 25).
• “Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
  but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life” (Prov 13: 12).
• ^“Even in laughter the heart may ache,
  and rejoicing may end in grief” (Prov 14: 13)

Anxiety. Hopes deferred. Heartache. Grief.

When anxiety gets in, it’s like a heaviness, weighing down, poisoning our joy, stealing our peace. When hopes are dashed or delayed, it can feel like the energy drain of a fever.  And what can be worse than being in a room with others who are enjoying life, but have no idea of the pain you are in?

When the stuff of life happens, if we are not careful, we give permission to harmful emotions to enter and take up residence in our hearts – anxiety, disappointment, discouragement, anger, pain… and so on.

The author of Proverbs pleads with us to guard our hearts. The old NIV says, “Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life”. I am to guard my heart because it is the wellspring of life. That is, a source of new living water. A source of God’s life. A pure heart, one guarded against negative emotions and sin, can be a source of God’s love and life to those around us.

Jesus promised that those with pure hearts are blessed because they will see God. Perhaps a clean and protected heart will see God moving in ways far beyond our natural abilities to do good. The pure in heart will see God in ways we cannot even imagine.