Why Can't I See Him? - Daughters of Promise - February 8

WHY CAN’T I SEE HIM?

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.  Matthew 5:8

Purity and defilement are polar opposites.  A pure heart sees God.  A defiled heart does not.  A pure heart has a cleansed conscience.  A defiled heart has a seared conscience.

Can I achieve purity of heart with mere mental discipline?  Not remotely.   Some would say to just ‘think on the things’ that Paul advocates in Philippians.  But those mental gymnastics don’t make me pure.  Though they might help me stay pure in heart, purity is the gift God gives to me upon confession of sin.

A defiled heart is one that is deceived. To the degree that I have a history of unconfessed sin, I can be sure that deception has a hold on me and has rendered partially blind.  Christ is not someone I treasure because my vision is impaired.

When mentoring women, I take them through a life inventory.  I explain that past sins, not yet confessed, bear consequences of spiritual blindness.   Unholy spiritual legacies from family bloodlines will also pass on deception. Let me speak from personal experience.  My father, and his parents, belonged to the Masonic Lodge.  When he asked to be released from his vows, he initiated a freedom for my sister and me.  If he had stayed in the Lodge, he would have passed on spiritual blindness since the belief system of the Lodge is rooted in Eastern religion. Our family did some significant spiritual work to fully renounce the ties of our ancestors.  Just as they took vows, one at a time, they needed to be renounced one at a time.  Some vague general prayer didn’t really hit the mark.

Paul addressed this subject another way. “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted.” Titus 1:15 My rudder, resident in my conscience, is corrupted by unbelief.

If I want to see God and remain pure in heart, I need to be tough on sin.  I aim to be a sin-killer.  Otherwise, I risk wearing foggy eyeglasses when I behold the face of God.

Bad eyesight can creep up on me.  Expose my sin before it metastasizes.  I want to see You in all of Your glory.  Amen

For more from Christine Wyrtzen and Jaime Wyrtzen Lauze, please visit www.daughtersofpromise.org