Pure Hearts

He who loves purity of heart And has grace on his lips, The king will be his friend. Proverbs 22.11 (emphasis added)

The heart. A pure heart. Loving pure hearts.

We would like to have a list of things to do -- things to present to Him. Here is something to do: present to Him a pure heart. Like it or not, we cannot gloss this one over. Bring Him what we will, accomplish all that we can in service to Him, He will always dig deep to look at our motivation, our attitude, and the force behind our thoughts and actions.

It always comes back to the heart. It begins there and it ends there.

We are called to guard our heart, to be keepers thereof.

Be keepers of our heart. Makes me think of housekeeping. We want our homes swept, tidied, and in order with garbage removed, windows opened so that fresh air flows, bleach and disinfectant applied liberally to grunge like mold and intrusive bacteria, refrigerators cleaned out regularly so no science experiments can grow in the leftover food container, laundry hampers emptied clear down to the bottom each time lest a wet wash cloth remain to get moldy (kids toss them in, you know...)

It takes work, planning, diligence, energy, time, creativity, and much more. It is sometimes fun, sometimes hard, sometimes boring, but always necessary if we hope to maintain health and cleanliness. They say that "cleanliness is next to Godliness" -- I've yet to find that scripture. But there is one concerning the heart:

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life. Proverbs 4.23

Keep the heart pure. How?

• Listen to the Holy Spirit. Like a huge spotlight, He will hone in on sin and deception and all those lovely things that can and will fester in our hearts. Unseen by us in our depravitiy, they will grow there apart from His detection. Let Him point them out, let Him speak to you freely. And listen.
• Read the Word. Allow it to correct your faulty thinking and bad attitudes. His ways are so different from ours. We need the Holy Word of God to set us straight, to enlighten our paths. Let it wash over your mind and renew your thinking in every way.
• Pray. Seek Him for grace, grace, and more grace. Ask Him for help daily. Without His empowering we would be subject to our own hearts and all their deception. But with His great and abundant help which is always at hand whenever we ask, we can rule over our hearts. If it were not so, He would not ask us to do it! Proverbs says that one who rules his own spirit is greater than one who rules a city. "Make us great, oh, Lord, for your name's sake."

Keeping the heart seems to be paramount on His list of essential things to do. Without a pure heart we cannot truly love. Without love we cannot truly keep His commands. And without keeping His commands we are not loving Him.

I want to love Him. To love Him and Him alone. And it looks like that requires a pure heart.