Pure Hearts In Imperfect Vessels

By Troy Pomeroy

In Psalm 24, David asks: “Who may ascend to the hill of the LORD? And who may stand in His holy place?” (v.3) The answer: “He who has clean hands and a pure heart . . .” (v.4)

In the deepest part of every believer is a desire to be pure of heart and pleasing to our Lord. And yet the pursuit of purity is an arduous journey. It seems the powers of darkness work overtime trying to lure God’s children away from Him. Every possible form of idolatry or worldly pleasure is available to tempt us and cause us to stumble. Praise be to God that Jesus has given us victory over all temptation, evil, and powers of darkness! Because of what Jesus did for us on the Cross, we can have pure hearts and clean hands. Day by day Jesus transforms us into what He created us for. He is working out His plan in our lives and molding us into His image.

It is an inexplicably deep appreciation within us that causes us to strive to live in a way that pleases God. Not because we have to act a certain way (we can never be good enough to earn His love), but because we get to have a relationship with him. We desire to seek His presence, to stand in His holy place. And that requires a pure heart. Because we want to have a close personal relationship with our savior, we strive to keep our hearts pure.

If we are completely honest with ourselves, even when we are doing things mostly right, our hearts are not completely pure. Take our prayers, for example. Though well meaning and sincere, we often have mixed motives. We want God’s will, but we also want the answer to our prayer to have a certain outcome. Or, in our efforts to help someone, we end up sermonizing or counseling in our prayer for them. Or maybe as we pray earnestly for someone’s benefit, there is also a part of us that wants to be the agent of God’s blessing for them. It can be very difficult to be pure of heart!

Fortunately, there’s no requirement to be perfect. David could write psalms proclaiming his desire for a pure heart because he was pure in heart. The Bible portrays David as someone who sought God’s presence with the purest and most sincere of hearts. And yet we also know from the Bible that he wasn’t perfect. We, like David, can have a pure heart even in our imperfection.

Jesus gave us a great encouragement when He said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8 Isn’t that the blessing we all really want – to see God?

Troy Pomeroy writes from Eagle Point, Oregon. troy_pomeroy@yahoo.com