Title

Acquiring a Pure Heart

Scripture
“Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man...”
(Matthew 15:19-20)
Devotional
Our environment can do nothing but spark that which is already in the heart. External influences do not defile us, We are defiled by that which is in the depth of our being. Rooted in each of us is the ability to commit any of the listed sins.
However, we do not have to succumb to the dictates of our hearts. 1 John 3:20 says, “If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart” Whenever the dictates of the heart reach the mind, all we have to do is surrender them to Christ. Realize that these thoughts are evil and that we do not have to yield to them. The root of sin proceeds from the heart, to the mind, to the deed, and eventually to death. “For the wages of sin is death.” (1) If we faithfully root out the evil thoughts, the heart-rooted sins will die. All that will remain is a pure heart, and “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. (2)

(1) Romans 6:23, (2) Matthew 5:8