Craig Smith Matthew 5:8
Over and over I hear it again
That the Father desires pure heart
Not to seek earthly treasure or the favor of man
But to be found with pureness of heart
Chorus
Pure heart is what the Father desires
Holy heart purified by God's holy fire
Broken heart, proven to be faithful and true
Fashion in me a heart that's thirsting for You
Search ever chamber, expose them to me
Create motives of honor and simplicity
May you find faithfulness, integrity
A heart which is worthy for Your eyes to see
Chorus
My only ambition is to stand before You
And find I was pleasing in Your sight
And obedient child of God, faithful and true
Found with pureness of heart
Chorus
The pure heart is free of mixed motives. It is one emptied of self, andfilled with total devotion to the Lord.--
Craig Smith
In the natural realm, when we speak of the heart, we are referring tothe chief physical organ in the human body. Though failure of otherhuman organs can result in death, no other part plays a more importantlife sustaining role than that of the heart.
This is also true in the spiritual realm. Throughout Biblical history,the heart has represented the man himself. The very center of hisevery emotion and appetite. It is no wonder then, that the Lord requireswe love Him with all our heart. A heart wholly devoted to the Lord is aheart which is pure, it has no admixture. It is not divided, polluted, orcontaminated by foreign substances.
The Psalmist tells us (
Ps 51:16,17) God is not pleased with sacrifices andburnt offerings. In fact, He told the Israelites, the very ones He setup the sacrificial system through, that He no longer took pleasure intheir burnt offerings, and that the offerings had even become"worthless." (
Is 1:11-13) The problem was not in His system, but wasinstead in the hearts of His people. He knew their hearts, and theirhearts were void of the necessary total devotion and love for Him. Theywere merely going through a heartless motion of meaningless religiousceremony. The result, "
When you spread out your hands in prayer, I willhide my eyes from you, yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will notlisten." (
Is 1:15) He then appeals to them to repent of their sins and bydoing so, even though their "sins are a scarlet, they will be washedwhite as snow..." I cannot help but mention the close parallel in
Israel's situation then, with the present situation in our westernculture today. According to various polling systems, the majority ofpeople living in the United States have a belief in God. However, for amajority, we do not seem to have a great effect on our society. Could itbe that a great many of those polled are jus going through "meaninglessreligious ceremony"? We would all do well to compare our presentrelationships with Christ with the early churches relationships to
Christ.
Once again, what pleases the Father is the whole heart devoted to Him.
The acceptable sacrifices to the Lord are no longer "burnt offerings"but instead "...a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart..." The word"broken" in these passages refers to a crushing into the form of powder.
If you were to take a small stone and toss it into a swift stream ofwater, the stone would resist the flow and quickly sink to the bottom.
However, you could recover the same small stone, pound it into a finepowder, and then pour it from your hand into the stream and even thoughit is the same mineral substance, it no longer resists the stream's flow,but instead floats wherever the stream carries it.
In many ways we are like the small stone. With selfish, unsubmissivehearts, we resist God's flow or direction and find ourselves sinking.
However, if we are wise, we will approach the Lord and ask Him to revealany and hurtful object in our hearts. Reveal anything that divides usfrom a right relationship with Him and restore us to the joy of oursalvation. May our prayers be that He will crush us into submissive,totally devoted hearts. Suddenly we will realize we are flowing with
Him and being totally fulfilled by our relationship with Him, instead ofliving in the strife of resistance. We will never know totalfulfillment, until He has from us a total heart, a whole heart, a pureheart.--
Craig Smith
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