A Pure Heart

A Pure Heart

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.

Malachi 3:3

IN WORD Imagine a person with absolutely no impure motives—no selfishness, no manipulation, no unworthy desire. Imagine that person having never functioned from any driving force other than love—an intense desire to seek the best for everyone. Imagine this person having the patience to wait for eons, the mercy to cover all mistakes, and the generosity to pour out kindness after kindness. Now imagine a person like that finding someone to relate to intimately.

That would be a hard task, wouldn’t it? A person like that is one of a kind, and there are no true counterparts for one-of-a-kind people. Yet that’s a picture of the God who made humanity in His image for the purpose of intimacy. We were designed to be pure, loving, generous, kind, and enduringly patient. We were formed to be like Him so that we could relate to Him emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and even physically as creative beings. The only problem is that God’s pure image became corrupted in human rebellion. His counterparts became decidedly unlike Him.

That’s why God is in the business of extracting silver and gold from common ore. The Refiner has a greater purpose than the purity of the metal. He means for it to fit His taste and match the glory of His heart. The master metallurgist is creating something dazzling for Himself.

IN DEED Maybe you never thought of yourself as “dazzling.” Maybe that’s because you, like all of us, are still in the refining process, where impurities still mingle with the treasure being extracted. But just because the unappealing process is highly visible doesn’t mean that the end result shouldn’t be beautiful. Keep your eyes on it and trust the Refiner. He knows exactly what it takes to make you shine.

If there is joy in the world, surely the man of pure heart possesses it.

—THOMAS À KEMPIS