My prayer since sometime late 2021 has been for a pure heart, since Jesus in the sermon on the mount said:
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8)
But the verse I’ve been taught to describe the condition of my heart, from very early on after salvation has been:
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
I’ve been taught that how I feel, my desires and deep longings are instinctually and naturally evil. In which case I have brushed aside many things that may have originated from the heart, knowing somehow they must contradict the will of God. And while this is undoubtedly true of fallen man, is it my current state?
Since beginning that prayer and studying the condition of my heart, I’ve found a lot of faith in what God says about me.
In Ezekiel it says:
36:25-27
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 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.
So I believe easily enough I have the new Spirit of God in me, but I didn’t have as much faith in my new heart. Shall I call my new heart from God deceitful and wicked? I hope not!
And I saw in acts, when the first gentiles were saved and the spirit poured out on them, Peter says during discussion that God “purified their hearts by faith”
Now wait a minute, THEIR hearts were purified and the pure of heart will see God. Has my heart not also been purified by faith?
Yes my heart is called to great things.
In hebrews 10:22
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
It is with my clean and true heart I can draw near to God.
In proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
It is with my heart I trust the lord.
In Matthew 22:37
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
It is with my heart I love God.
And it goes on and on. It is an active process, to be sure. The heart must be guarded and yielded to the Lord, but from that place it is a treasure. From it flow my words and actions. It is the place of the lords judgment, the seat of all my intention, and all my joy. It is where the Lord now writes His law and empowers me to follow. In Roman’s 10 it even says that with the heart one believes and is justified.
I still pray constantly for a pure heart, for I long to see His face, but I also acknowledge and thank Him for the transformation already accomplished.
If I will position myself, God will not despise my heart, and neither should I. As I become more and more like His son, I can put more and more value on the things of the heart.
Abiding Grace 