A Pure Heart

Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure;I am clean and without sin”?

Proverbs 20:9 (NIV)

Horace Smith said, “When a proud man thinks best of himself, then God and man think worst of him.”

I remember J. Vernon McGee talking about one of his roommates in college. He came home one day and said, “J. Vernon, I have attained sinless perfection.” The problem was that from then on when anything went wrong, he would consider it everyone else’s fault.

Jesus spoke in Luke 18:11-14 about those who trusted in themselves, thought that they were righteous, and despised others. So he told the story of two men in the Temple, a Pharisee and a tax collector. “The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you, [said Jesus] that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (NIV).

Whenever I read this story, I’m embarrassed for the Pharisee. How could he be so full of himself that he doesn’t see how ridiculous this looks to God? Then I remember Jesus didn’t tell this story just so that the Pharisee would get it. He told it so I would.

Make It Personal . . . Live It Out!

We can be very much like the Pharisee in this story. David went to the Lord with a deep desire to be like an open book, longing for him to cleanse and change him. Will you pray these words, and then still your heart, asking God to be completely honest with you? “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life” (Psalm 139:23-24).

One Year Bible Reading

2 Chronicles 24:1–25:28; Romans 12:1-21; Psalm 22:19-31; Proverbs 20:8-10