Hello and happy Monday! How are we doing with the beatitudes #beingmyattitudes? The longer I walk with Jesus the more tender I become to His presence in my life. I am so grateful He is with me. I am so grateful He is gracious toward me as I #clumsycourtney my way around life. I am so grateful He offers these beatitudes a gift to me even though I often treat them as other gifts I have received in this life: I don’t always know how to use them or set them aside as a forgotten item on a shelf or it gets buried in the back of my closet even though I have the best of intentions!
May we be reminded today of His goodness and gift…
Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
It is more than an external purity of behavior; it is an internal purity of soul. (source)
When I was just old enough to read, I found a thick, pink book on our bookshelf at home. I pulled it off the shelf and discovered it was a book full of manners lessons. I read that book cover-to-cover and armed myself with the information that allowed me to know all the right rules and regulations the little life I was living. It fed the natural desire in me to behave. I thought if I could just ‘be good,’ I would feel better. A book that helped me know exactly how to be good was the perfect solution in my five year old brain! What it did instead was give me a heart of a Pharisee, pointing out the errors in all the others while hardening my own. I began to drive everyone in my family crazy with, “That’s not what the manners book says!” “You know you’re supposed to do it this way…” “That’s not very nice manners.” “If you knew how to mind your manners…” But I loved and cherished that book. I read it lots of times, the cover was all bent and curled over. It was a treasure to me. (I know, I know— plenty of psychoanalysis to be had here… ;) )
I was still in my manners book phase when I began to feel as if there was something else still missing. Like, as much as I wanted to, I still couldn’t follow all of the rules all of the time. I kept falling short. I wanted to behave and be perfect but as much as I tried, I could never accomplish that goal. And then on one Sunday morning at Harrison Bible Church, my Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Gillette, read us a book about a missionary nurse in Africa. (I have always loved books; can you tell!?) That book told the Gospel story in a way I had never heard or understood before. The nurse loved on these African kiddos in a way that provided for their physical needs but also gave them the answers to their hurting hearts as well. At the end of the book, the nurse took the kids through the ‘salvation prayer.’ And my eyes were opened. I finally had the right words to what my heart knew was missing.
That afternoon when we got home from church, I went upstairs to my bedroom, knelt by my bed, and recreated that prayer that the missionary nurse and Mrs. Gillette told me earlier that morning. As you may have guessed, having the right words mattered to me. I prayed and asked forgiveness for all the ways I tried to be good but couldn’t. I prayed and accepted that Jesus was the only perfect person who ever lived and died on my behalf to pay the penalty I knew I deserved. I prayed and celebrated that Jesus didn’t stay dead, but that He rose again three days later paving the way for me to join Him in Heaven one day but also to live with Him, alive in me, for the rest of my days on earth. The emptiness of the manners book behaviors was replaced with grace and truth that I didn’t have to be perfect to be loved. I didn’t have to be perfect to find peace. I just needed to find Jesus.
Matthew 5:8 “Blessed [anticipating God’s presence, spiritually mature] are the pure in heart [those with integrity, moral courage, and godly character], for they will see God.
“The only way we can be truly pure in heart is to give our lives to Jesus and ask Him to do the cleansing work. Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” God is the one who makes our hearts pure – by the sacrifice of His Son and through His sanctifying work in our lives.” (source)
My mom often quoted the verse that “to the pure, all things are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving,” (Titus 1:5) usually when my brother or I were nearing the edge of conversation, joking, or bodily function that was not acceptable. She taught us, through God’s Word, that purity began in the heart.
Matthew 5:8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
God is the one who purifies the heart, and the instrument with which he cleans it is faith. Therefore, trust in the Lord with all your heart (Proverbs 3:5). Will this one thing. And you will see God. -John Piper
Matthew 5:8 God blesses those whose hearts are pure,
for they will see God.
May our lives be pure this week, friends. The promise is great. We will get to see God. May it be so.
#bemyattitude
What’s a book you remember from childhood?
Podcast Parables | Season 3 | Episode 8 | Isaac
God promised Abram he would be the father of a nation. Gen 12:2
God promised Sarah she would bear a child. Gen 18:10
God promised them a land. Gen 12:1
God promised blessing. Gen 12:2-3
And the Lord did exactly what He promised. Gen 21:1
We read the succession of these verses and forget the days in between-- the steps Abraham had to take with Isaac at his side, knowing what would be asked of him at the top of the mountain. The days Sarah spent pregnant, living in a tent in the desert at the age of 89. The days spent doing chores and cooking meals and wiping sweat from their brow.
I’m thankful that the promises of God do not depend on my feelings or faithfulness.
God is who He says He is.
I am who God says I am.
Those things do not change, no matter the day, no matter the triumph, no matter the trial. God is who He says He is. I am who God says I am. The Lord will do exactly what He promised.
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