Create in Me A Clean Heart

Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Imagine sitting down to a sumptuous dinner in a beautiful setting and finding to your chagrin that the forks, plates and glasses provided for your use are dirty and caked with dried food from some other diner's feast. Yuck! We expect clean utensils. We are sickened by the very thought of using unclean vessels.

In the Old Testament there was a clear division between the clean and the unclean. God wanted to be served and worshipped by a clean and pure people. They were to be physically, ceremonially, and morally clean and He still expects it of us now.

In fact, King David, after having been involved in adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband, prayed to God for a clean heart. In Psalm 51, he asked to be renewed, because he knew that he had sinned and greatly disappointed his God. He knew that his actions and motives were impure and he asked God to purge him with hyssop. Hyssop, was an herb that was associated with cleansing ad purification and is used here to signify the cleansing of the soul. David asked to be washed, so that he was whiter than snow. The word that he used here in Hebrew is not the word for merely dipping a dish in water but, rather, the word used for the washing of clothes by pounding and beating. David wanted a thorough cleansing from his sin nature. He wanted a pure heart.

To be pure of heart does not mean that on our own we can be clean of every stain and blemish, for we sin and fall short of the glory of God; but rather to be single minded and sincere to God and to man. It is the passionate desire to be holy like God is holy and it is the dependence on God to make it so. To be pure is to hate evil and to cling to good.

Praise God, that Christ will purify our hearts by faith. He died to make us clean and pure in heart. His blood was shed to wash us and make us new creatures. It is through Christ that we are made acceptable vessels for God's use. It is only because of Jesus that we are no longer abhorrent to God in our sin but now pleasing to Him because of His Son.

Matthew 5:8 says, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. What does it mean to see Him? Check out the revelation of the end times. Revelation 22:3-5 tells us what the future holds for believers: "And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there. They need no lamp or light of the sun, for the LORD gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever."

Praise God, the pure in heart are heaven bound. Want to be pure? Be made pure by the washing of the Blood and the cleansing of God's Word, and you shall not only see Him, but He will conform you to be like Him.