Belonging to God

Matthew 5:8-9 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
 
JESUS' teaching here is no surprise. Many scriptures consistently point to the desire and benefit of a pure heart. For example, King David prayed for a pure heart to redeem his sins: Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalms 51:10). Only a pure heart would end the conflict between David and God at that point. And there is the fundamental command, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart.” (Deuteronomy, Matthew, Mark and Luke)
   A pure heart is the way to the King: He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend. (Proverbs 22:11). A pure heart runs from sin and runs to God: Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:22)          
   A pure heart is synonymous with holiness – God’s perfection, without blemish. To be with God, we must strive to be as God. True, it is not humanly possible to be completely holy. However, when the Spirit awakens us to Jesus’ saving truth, he begins to clear our heart. The Gospel of God becomes our pure cleansing agent, so our heart will increasingly welcome the fruit of God’s Spirit. 
   A pure heart also leads to making peace with God. We know God created the world with a wonderful peace between mankind and himself and all creation. God gave us a gracious mandate to rule the world in the peace and power of his Word.
   But when Satan asked Eve, “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:2) conflict destroyed the peace. Temptation has constantly waged war within mankind’s soul since then. We strive for things we should not have, and we work hard to avoid the things of God we truly need. We are tempted to delay our work when we should get up and go. We are tempted to work too much when we should rest. We are tempted to lash back when we should be patient and forgive. We are tempted to say, “Not me!” when the Lord calls us to action. We are tempted to avoid a friend who needs a helping hand. We are tempted to tempt others into our own weariness and sin, feeling better when others are in the pit with us.
   Temptation, indeed, has conflict power over our lives. It stirs us against God and against one another. We forget we “need Thee every hour” as the hymn says. But we must be constantly reminded that “temptation loses its power when thou art nigh.” Yielding to temptation keeps God at a distance. When God is far away we become formless and weak. We subscribe to false remedies while we reject the only solution.
   Yes, blessed are the pure  hearts of peacemakers. They put temptation aside, so they can be children of God, just as he created them to be.