In Matthew 5:8(NLT), Jesus Christ said, “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God.” Throughout His Word, God emphasizes the importance of having a heart that pleases Him. The greatest reward that any human being can receive is to move from this life to the next and see God. Matthew 5:8 tells us that the way to receive this blessing is to have a heart that is pure. When we lookup the definition of ‘pure’, we see words like unmixed, unadulterated, and uncontaminated. Heavenly Father knows that we’re not perfect, and all of us have some stuff in our hearts that shouldn’t be there, but in this wonderful verse, He’s calling our attention to our motives. He knows whether we have a loving heart, because He knows what’s in them. If our true motives are not anchored in love, we won’t be able to handle the treasure of someone else’s heart, because there won’t be room in our own hearts to accommodate the life of another.
When it comes to the subject of love, there are some hard and fast rules that just won’t bend. We can bump up against them as many times as we’d like, but we will do so at our own peril. Each and every time we thrust ourselves against the wall of love’s rules, and we do so without the humility to learn love’s lessons, some aspect of our hearts will get bruised.
One of the truths we must know beyond any doubt is that God designed life to be a very dynamic reality. It is not meant to be stagnant. Its movement is one that is geared towards a forward and upward trajectory, and Heavenly Father designed life to be a learn-as-you-go reality. Most of humanity understands this, and its why schools and educational systems are so important to our everyday lives. We understand at a very basic level that if learning isn’t a substantial hallmark in our development, we get left behind. Considering this, it should be no surprise to us that God set this progression through learning for our spiritual lives, and that came first. The educational systems that humanity has instituted followed His queue. So, make no mistake, wisdom from God’s Word is and will forever be the principal thing.
God created life in such a way that lessons are woven all throughout it. If for some reason, our learning doesn’t keep pace with the path that God has designed for life, just as students are in schools, we will be left behind. That’s not fun. God is a good God, so He desires everyone to progress. 1John 4:16(NLT) tells us, “We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” We were created to live in God’s love. He has commanded us to let love be our nature, and we are to wear love like a second skin.
All of life’s lessons have one goal, and it is to teach us to go higher in God’s love. Learning those lessons are rewarded with blessings that contain yummies like harmony, peace, unity, joy, and abundance. One of our problems is that often we want the reward without learning the lesson, and that goes against one of those hard and fast rules that will not bend. You don’t earn a degree if you don’t finish the class.
1Corinthians 16:14 tells us to let love and kindness be the motivation behind everything we do. This isn’t a suggestion, it’s a command. It’s the way we move forward and upward. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is a Rewarder to those that diligently seek Him. A loving heart is a heart that seeks to please God. This is the heart He rewards. It’s the heart to do good things and pursue after Him to find out what good things He wants done. This takes humility. It takes the patience to hit the pause button, and the willingness to take a seat and use our noggins to reflect and think.
In Psalm 51:10(NLT), King David prayed to God, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” When our relationships aren’t successful, and we’re continually coming out on the side of heartbreak and disappointment, life isn’t punishing us, and neither is the person that has chosen to journey forward without us. Something about our hearts is weighing us down, and when this is our condition, we will not be able to keep pace with the blessings God wants to give us. He knows where we need to be so that our hearts are changed, and our motivation shifts in the gear of purity. God is the One with the plan for our lives, and our best strategy is to learn love from our Master Jesus, so that our hearts are made pure by the love of God, then the high quality love we give will be the love we receive. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Do You Have A Loving Heart?”, written for Crazynlove.com ©2020. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!