Pure in Heart

'Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God'.

jesus is not speaking of the physical heart, for the eyes of the body are made to see only natural things: they cannot see God.

The eyes that see God are the eyes of the spirit: the eyes of the soul's understanding; but even these cannot see Him unless the heart is pure. And the heart at first is impure from the love of self: its eyes can only see self in everything they view. To change this it is necessary to change the love of self for the love of God. Not easy but possible, because we have the Lord's teachings to show us the way.

As we follow the Lord's teachings our vision changes; we find we are looking to what is eternal, instead of seeing only what is temporary. The light that enables us to see is now coming from the Lord, instead of from ourselves. We are being born again, and the heart of our new birth is love for Jesus: this heart is pure because it is really His love in us, from which we see God.

Now we read His Word with new eyes, because the light we have is the light of life. Every truth is seen as a spiritual mirror reflecting His love and His wisdom.

To see anything in the natural world we need light from the natural sun, and to see anything spiritual in the Lord's Word we need light from the spiritual sun which is the Lord's love. His love is the sun of heaven and the sun of our souls.

The angels of little children always see the face of the Father in heaven because they are innocent. We are innocent—pure in heart—in so far as we love the Lord and follow His ways.

PRAYER

'Create in me a clean heart, O God' (Psalm 51, 10).

• Quotations