Be Still And Know

Matthew 5:8 “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.” If you have any gold or silver you will know that it is vital that it is as pure as possible. Any impurity will hugely diminish its value. Jesus was saying that the same rule applies to our spiritual lives. We need to be single-minded, keeping our eyes fixed on his kingdom and not allowing ourselves to be distracted by any lesser objective. This reminds me of Psalm 24, where we learn that the people who were welcomed to worship God in the temple were “those whose hands and hearts are pure” (v4). This makes uncomfortable reading. We can easily understand the desirability of having pure hearts, but we know that our lives are a long way away from that. Even our best efforts can very easily be spoilt by unhelpful motives. When we give generously to help others, we will often feel personal pleasure and pride at what we have given. In fulfilling our roles in our churches, it is easy to focus far too much attention on the love