Does Your Inside Match Your Outside?

Matthew 5:8 NIV

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Once a father told his child to sit down. The child refused. Again the father told his child to sit down, and again the child stubbornly refused. Finally, the father said, “If you don’t sit down I’m going to give you a spanking.” The child sat down and said, “I’m sitting down on the outside, but I’m still standing up on the inside!” Reminds me of what Jesus said to the Jewish leaders:

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me…’ MT 15:7-8

Outwardly they honored God. They sang songs and prayed and tithed. But they had no love for God. Their hearts – their inner persons – were impure – they acted religious to be noticed by men, not to please God. They were hypocrites.

When God saves us he gives us new hearts:

And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Ezekiel 36:26-27

God gives us new hearts that want to follow and obey him and pours his Holy Spirit into us who motivates us to sincere obedience. The reward for pursuing purity? “They shall see God.” by Mark Altrogge BIBLE STUDY TOOLS

ON THE WAY HOME WALK WITH JESUS and know our new heart is obeying JESUS and we are constantly pursuing purity.