Tis a higher thing still to be pure of heart

Tis a higher thing still to be pure of heart.

There is a convergence of thoughts this morning as I write—of what it means to be a partner in the new covenant—of what it might mean for us to have our hearts circumcised … to have
purity of heart … of just how much prayer has to do with changing us into who
we are meant to be . . .

May I charge you foremost to remember that we were made for God.

Enter into prayer with me, please:

Father in heaven, what is man without you!

What is all that he knows, vast accumulation though it be,

but a chipped fragment if he does not know you?

What is all his striving, could it even encompass a world,

but a half-finished work if he does not know you:

you the One, who is one thing and who is all!1

Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing, and that one thing must be to know God! Keeping our hearts pure is bound up in seeking to know God—I shall be so bold as to say they are inextricably
linked. I am drawn again and again
back to Jesus’ words to his beloved disciples, ”Abide in Me, and I in you.”

How do we abide in Jesus? We draw near to God, because then he draws near to us.2 We choose to go to him, and let him come to us. We desire not just to intimately know him, but also to be known by him, earnestly seeking him. We treasure his words—our blessed sacred Scriptures, as a war-time widow holds to her heart
the last letter written by her fallen husband. We spend time learning to pray.

Ah, abiding in him. Power with God is the highest attainment of the life of full abiding…3 May it be so with us. As Jesus looked
at his men and then gestured toward the vines, heavy with clinging bunches of
grapes, he said to them, he said to you and to me-“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in
Me.”4 As the union of the
branch with the vine is one of growth, never-ceasing growth and increase, so
our abiding in Christ is a life process in which the Divine life takes ever
fuller and more complete possession of us.3

Teach us to pray, dear Lord.

Perhaps, like Denver, the redeemed drug-dealing deacon, we should take to our knees. I have found that the position of my body often cues my heart to take
its right position before God.

Father in Heaven, enable our hearts to will one thing—to know you.

So may you give to the intellect, wisdom to comprehend that one thing;

To the heart, sincerity to receive this understanding;

To the will, purity that wills only one thing.

In prosperity may you grant perseverance to will one thing;

amid distractions, collectedness to will one thing;

in suffering, patience to will one thing.

O, you who give both the beginning and the completion,

may you early, at the dawn of day,

give to the young person the resolution to will one thing.

As the day wanes, may you give to the old person a renewed remembrance of their first resolution,

that the first may be like the last,

the last like the first, in possession of a life that has willed only one thing.1

We wish to abide in you. We long to have purity in heart.

“Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners;

and purify your hearts you double-minded.” James 4.7

And now, Lord God, give us the courageous will to remain in you, that we might begin to somehow grasp what it means to be pure of heart. Amen.

Christine