{"id":13562,"date":"2025-01-08T13:29:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T18:29:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/?p=13562"},"modified":"2025-01-10T10:59:57","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:59:57","slug":"purity-of-heart-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/?p=13562","title":{"rendered":"Purity of Heart, Pt.1"},"content":{"rendered":"
This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Importance of The Heart<\/a><\/div>

“Blessed are the pure in heart<\/strong>,<\/span> for they shall see God\u201d Matthew 5:8.<\/p>\n

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness<\/span>, without which no man shall see the Lord” Hebrews 12:14.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think that seeing God is the goal of every single believer, but then. . . are we really paying attention to our heart’s condition?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1\/ Our heart can be purified by God when we confess & repent from our sins-<\/span>
\nFirst it’s important to recognize the effect this hardened heart cause to our spiritual life & that we are not exempt of getting it, so we can look to God for help. The Holy Spirit can show us our heart\u2019s true condition so we can repent.<\/p>\n

\u201cSearch me O God, and know my heart<\/strong>\u2026see if there is any offensive way in me<\/span>, and lead me in the way everlasting\u201d Psalm 139:23-24<\/p>\n

\u201cHave mercy upon me, O God, .. blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin<\/strong>. For I acknowledge my transgressions:and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight…Create in me a clean heart<\/strong>, O God; and renew a right spirit within me<\/span>. Cast me not away from thy presence<\/span><\/strong>; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Psalm51:1-3,10-11 ; (also Acts 8:22).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our heart becomes hard because of unrepented sin, especially if the sin is a continual or repetitive sin.<\/p>\n

‘But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through<\/span> the deceitfulness of sin<\/span>‘<\/strong> Heb 3:13<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Some of these sins can be very subtle, like pride, which will cause our hearts to harden, or like unforgiveness which causes bitterness to grow into our hearts<\/span>,\u00a0 (Hebrews 12:15<\/a>).<\/p>\n

This is why it’s so important to examine ourselves as often as possible. 2 Cor.13:5.<\/p>\n

\u201cbut after thy hardness and impenitent heart<\/span><\/strong> treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God\u201d Romans 2:5.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God can heal any heart once we recognize our disobedience and repent of our sins, but repentance is more than just words, true repentance manifests itself in a changed life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus also taught about the heart<\/span> in Mark 7:7-8, 14-22<\/a>; Matt.15:10-20<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders<\/span>, but eat bread with unwashen hands?<\/strong> 6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart<\/span> is far from me<\/strong>. 7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men<\/span>. 8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do. . .
\n16 If any man have ears to hear, let him hear<\/span>. 17 And when he was entered into the house from the people, his disciples asked him concerning the parable. 18 And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; 19 because it entereth not into his heart<\/span><\/strong>, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? 20 And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. 21 For from within, out of the heart of men<\/span><\/strong>, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22 thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23. all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We all tend to look at the outward of man.\u00a0 In Israel at those times, there were many regulations regarding external purity<\/strong><\/span> but God wasn’t & still He isn’t interested in them, God looks the heart<\/span>, He cannot be deceived (1Sam. 16:7).<\/p>\n

\u201cthen hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and act, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone<\/span> know the hearts<\/span> of all the sons of men<\/strong>),.\u201d I Kings 8:39<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our actions or behavior, and even our words, are product or symptoms of our heart’s condition: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart<\/span> bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh<\/span>” Luke6:45; (Also Matt.12:34; Psalm 37:30)<\/p>\n

That ‘s why the Lord told us :
\n” Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” Matthew 7:16<\/p>\n

If we pay attention and clean our heart first, then we will fix the problems of a corrupt communication, evil thoughts and bad deeds. Because purity of heart will reflect in a pure life.<\/p>\n

2\/ Let’s make sure GOD is our 1st priority in our life. Purity of heart<\/span> happens because of being close to God.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first of all the commandments to the believer is to love God with all your heart. Mark 12:28-34. So after a heart is redeemed or cleaned, the next step to take its to submit that life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, that is how He can work in us and change us.<\/p>\n

In a world filled with so many distractions<\/strong> (like mentioned at the soil\/heart with thorns), the story of Mary and Martha can help us understand better and help us to set our priorities in order.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus\u2019 feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving<\/strong>, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered<\/strong> and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things<\/span>:<\/strong> but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.<\/span>\u201d Luke 10:38-42<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mary had discovered the one thing needful. Some called true worship, others devotion of her heart and others say it’s listening the Word of God, but what there is no doubt about is that Mary put all her things aside, gave her full and undivided attention to hear the words of Jesus, to be in His presence<\/span><\/strong>. By Jesus owns words we can understand, that nothing is more important than that.<\/p>\n

He doesn’t say Martha was doing wrong by serving, but that she was worrying about many things<\/strong> -while serving (including worrying about her sister’s behavior), the word cumbered (#G4049) means over-occupied, too busy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Martha sought to honor Jesus by serving. All was done for Him, but it was done in her own way, what she thought was right at that moment but not His way. A person busy or distracted like Martha cannot listen to Jesus until she learns to be in His presence. The bible teach us to care one for another (1Cor.12:25), so it’s good to serve one another, but one important lesson here is that the Lord is our first priority<\/span>, we should never neglect spending time with Jesus, time in His presence<\/strong>, hearing from Him (many of us spend more time asking & talking to Him than listening).<\/p>\n

John15:1-7, explains something very similar :<\/p>\n

(Cont. Pt.2) . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This entry is part 5 of 6 in the series Importance of The Heart<\/a><\/div>

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God\u201d Matthew 5:8. “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” Hebrews 12:14. I think that seeing God is the goal of every single believer, but then. . . are we really paying attention to our heart’s condition?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"series":[39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13562"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13574,"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13562\/revisions\/13574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13562"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cristolaverdad.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fseries&post=13562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}