Nuggets of Truth – Pure in Heart

The Sermon on the Mount is the largest recorded sermon given by Jesus to His followers. He wanted to prepare them, and us, to live a radically different life than what we see in the world. As true disciples we will experience every beatitude at some point in our lives, which means that we will also be blessed as promised. Nuggets of Truth are taken from the Sermon on the Mount and presented from the Message translation of the Bible. My hope is that you will find encouragement and connection with each passage.

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. – Matthew 5:8

Remember that moment when you first gave your heart to God and asked Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of your life?  How about the forgiveness and overwhelming feeling of relief you felt when your sins were removed further than the east is from the west?  And what about the thrill of embarking on a new and beautiful relationship with Jesus that made your heart smile?  

Those emotions and feelings were the result of a pure heart and are marked by an uncompromising desire to please God in all things.  The pure in heart love God above everything else and they live an obedient life of expectancy, seeing Him everywhere and in everything, while trusting His Word as the absolute authority of their lives.

We must constantly fight against the temptation to become compromising or casual about the things of God.  To do this we must not tolerate sin by bowing to the pressure to be open-minded about what the world views as acceptable.  This requires courage and faith, but the alternative is losing our first love and being separated from God.

That is what Jesus was referring to when He said, “You have forsaken your first love. Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”  When we lose sight of the seriousness of sin, we begin to lose the thrill of our salvation. 

We were created for so much more than this world could ever offer.  We are pursued and loved by the Creator of the Universe.  Knowing this will give us the strength to remain in the continual pursuit of seeking Him and desiring the things of God which will create a pure heart in us.