Purify Your Heart

Something I feel God is talking to me about lately is learning how to better gauge, monitor, and measure my responses.  And I feel as if He is addressing not only the words that escape my lips but the hidden responses in my heart, too.  His conviction toward me is that even though I may be able to hold my tongue more often than not, the bigger concern is the actual condition of my heart toward others.

Jesus addresses this in Matthew 15:11,18-20:  “What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them…But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”

His heart in this is that what comes out of our mouths matters and we are accountable for those things that we say because they are a true reflection of the evil stored up in our hearts—remember the “flesh” battle is indeed real.  If we are spewing out ugliness, bitterness, or vindictive, sharp or biting words, we must answer for that before the Lord because it is sin and it truly defiles us and brings pain, discouragement, and sadness to others.

We may say, “But it’s not as bad if we don’t say what we are truly thinking out loud, right?  It’s okay because we didn’t let the words escape our mouths but just kept them locked up in our hearts, right?”  Jesus says that the real issue IS the heart, so even if we think, “Well, I kept my mouth shut.  Doesn’t that make me look more holy because I kept my mouth shut?”  The answer is no…we may have less external consequences because of that, but we should not think we will escape accountability for our “loose”, unresolved, or bitter thoughts.

So what do we do?  The answer is found in 1 John 1:6-9:  “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from allsin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”

Today, let’s confess our sin before the Lord and ask for Jesus’ forgiveness; let’s allow Jesus to purify our hearts, and let’s commit to walking in the light with the help of the Spirit of God.

Katie Botello
FBC Aztec Member