Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God
Worship is what happens when we see God. We are struck down in amazement when He comes just like the shepherds in the fields, Peter in a boat filled with fish or Moses at the burning bush. None of these were doing anything remotely religious, yet God came and showed himself to them. But then we need to ask, 'what is a pure heart?'
Since the word pure means unmixed I want to tell a story of when I was a teenager, going out early in the morning to milk our cow. By the light of a candle I slowly worked to fill the pail with fresh milk. It would look clean and foamy but it was not really pure. There were always small things in the milk from the cow or from the dust in the barn. When I returned to the house we would always pour the milk through a piece of cloth first before it was put away in the refrigerator. That cloth would take out all the tiny things that had gotten mixed into the milk so that what we had was 'pure milk'.
God also wants our hearts to pass through His cloth. That is His working daily in our lives. Others may look and think , 'oh what a pure heart they have', but God knows all of the tiny details. He loves us too much to let us stay mixed with things that dirty our hearts. Every day we must allow His strong hands to pour us through the cloth. He never does this to harm us but so that each day we can look up again and see Him.
Doing the religious thing is often just us running away from the hands of God. Sometimes we do not want to be separated from the things that have been mixed into our hearts. Becoming clean means to stop running from our Father. Let Him to pick us up and pour us through the cloth today. Then we will see Him. Then our worship will be pure and fresh and like a child again!
Create in me a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me.. Psalm 51:10
Worship is what happens when we see God. We are struck down in amazement when He comes just like the shepherds in the fields, Peter in a boat filled with fish or Moses at the burning bush. None of these were doing anything remotely religious, yet God came and showed himself to them. But then we need to ask, 'what is a pure heart?'
Since the word pure means unmixed I want to tell a story of when I was a teenager, going out early in the morning to milk our cow. By the light of a candle I slowly worked to fill the pail with fresh milk. It would look clean and foamy but it was not really pure. There were always small things in the milk from the cow or from the dust in the barn. When I returned to the house we would always pour the milk through a piece of cloth first before it was put away in the refrigerator. That cloth would take out all the tiny things that had gotten mixed into the milk so that what we had was 'pure milk'.
God also wants our hearts to pass through His cloth. That is His working daily in our lives. Others may look and think , 'oh what a pure heart they have', but God knows all of the tiny details. He loves us too much to let us stay mixed with things that dirty our hearts. Every day we must allow His strong hands to pour us through the cloth. He never does this to harm us but so that each day we can look up again and see Him.
Doing the religious thing is often just us running away from the hands of God. Sometimes we do not want to be separated from the things that have been mixed into our hearts. Becoming clean means to stop running from our Father. Let Him to pick us up and pour us through the cloth today. Then we will see Him. Then our worship will be pure and fresh and like a child again!Create in me a pure heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me.. Psalm 51:10
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