Search Me, O God!

The 5/8 verse for today is Matthew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God."  (NIV)

I looked up the word "pure" in the dictionary.  I found it very telling that the term "free of" was at the heart of the definition.  Pure can be defined as free of dirt or taint (spotless or stainless), free of harshness or roughness, free of what weakens or pollutes, or free from moral fault or guilt.

Likewise, I was curious about the Greek word for "pure".  It is "katharos", which means to be clean or pure, physically or ethically.  In a physical sense, it means to be purified by fire or to be like a vine cleansed by pruning so it can bear fruit.  In an ethical sense, it means to be free from corrupt desire, sin and guilt, or to be free from falseness.  Another definition is to be blameless or innocent.

I LOVE that Celebrate Recovery's 4th Principle correlates with this verse.  The 4th Principle says, "Openly examine and confess my faults to myself, to God, and to someone I trust."  Step 4 says, "We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves."  I don't care WHO you are, you can benefit from applying this verse, this principle and this step to your life.  If I'm unpacking this correctly and I'm in tune with what I sense the Lord is telling me, it would stand to reason that, if I want to "be free", this is a good place to take some action.  Just looking at the definitions above, I can see how God would want to use this to help us be free of things that keep us from being all He wants us to be.

I think it's important to mention that committing one's life and self to Christ, first, is the key to unlocking the wisdom of this verse.  The Holy Spirit is our guide to doing an effective moral and spiritual inventory.  Until we allow Him to do the necessary pruning in our lives, we will never know the depth of freedom we can experience from past and current hurts, habits and hang-ups.  The Great Physician is just standing by, poised to do radical heart surgery so we can finally see Him with a pure heart.

Psalm 139: 23,24 says, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts.  Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life."  That is my prayer, Lord, for me and for others who want to be "free of" the hurts, habits and hang-ups in our lives.