I can easily look at myself and think, I am pretty awful. I feel dirty, how could I ever have a pure heart? But when I focus on those things, I am focusing on myself, not God.
Psalm 19:8 says this: “The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.”
It also says that God is perfect, sure, right, enlightening, clean, true, righteous…
Galatians 2:20 says: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Because I am crucified with Jesus, I no longer live, God lives in me! When I focus on all that I am not– I forget all that He is. When I focus on how I am not good enough, I forget that He IS! When I focus on myself, I forget that it is not I who lives, but Christ in me.
We are pure in heart because God lives in us. Let’s focus on Him, not ourselves!
When we focus on God and all His eternal blessings we are free to follow Him in obedience. When our hearts are pure because He lives in us and cleanses us, we have the strength to pursue the hard calling of obedience. We can do this when we are deeply rooted in this truth: it it isn’t about us anymore. We can trust that God will take care of our problems.
The Holy Spirit leads us in obedience. The problem comes in when our obedience looks odd to culture– or even other Christians. When I know the Spirit is prompting me to do something that doesn’t make sense, I am eager but scared to follow through. Eager because I am excited about what God will do, but timid because of the opinions of others and the possibility of failed expectations. These things can lead to me to doubt God’s leading. I wonder…is this really God or have I misunderstood Him?
We are clearly instructed to look to eternal things; God not self. When we walk forward in obedience to God we can ask ourselves this one simple question: Am I living for eternal or temporal things? If we are genuinely pursuing eternal things we can step out in confident obedience. If our motives are laced with temporal desires, we need to take them to the Lord in prayer before we step out.
We may still be called to something that holds the possibility of underlying selfish motives. Before we step out in obedience however, we need to pause and let God wash us of ourselves. After we have a holy wrestle with God, we can step out in confidence knowing that any problems we will face are God’s problems. He will take care of them–and us– as we pursue Him and look to Him, not ourselves.
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