Purity Devotion ~ A Pure Heart

Here it is! My first purity devotion post. I will be rotating through the four different books every few days :) Thank you all for supporting these devotion posts. Enjoy!


We don't hear the word purity much today except in descriptions of cleaning agents and snow covered landscapes. We do hear the word spoken more frequently in the Christian community, but usually only as it applies to sexual purity. We have lost sight of all it means to be pure as God intended. So what does it mean? Purity is much more than moral behavior. Purity is first and foremost a matter of the heart. To be pure is to be single-minded. It is to have a single goal, a single focus, and a single purpose for ourselves and our lives. That is biblical purity, and from it springs moral behavior - the good we do with our bodies. At its core, purity is having a heart for the Lord that isn't watered down or polluted by lesser things.
The apostle James wrote, Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (James 4:8) According to James, a double-minded woman spends her passion going after what this world offers. In contrast, Jesus describes a very different sort of passion: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. (Matthew 22:37-38). Elsewhere Jesus attaches a promise to purity: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God Matthew 5:8). To see God is to know the joy of living in close relationship with him. To see him is also to enjoy Spirit-filled, biblically guided direction and guidance for all of life. A woman who is pure in this way realizes an ever-increasing ability to rightly apply God's Word to the little day-to-day things.
Putting Christ first i the essence of purity. That is why Jesus words in the beatitude, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," are the starting point for any woman who is serious about being pure But the beatitude is not only our starting point; it is also the place to end. Jesus' words form a basis for the kind of purity that will endure for a lifetime. Viewing purity from a biblical perspective takes our understanding of what it means to be pure beyond mere outward conduct to a whole new level - a deeper level. And if we approach purity as Jesus describes it, we will discover that our battle to be pure in body, as well as in mind and spirit, comes much more easily.
We women struggle, often with little success, to master particular sins - outward displays of impurity. Perhaps that's because we have been trying to clean up our act while failing to see the impurity of our heart. What are we to do? We can't clean our own heart. besides, the extent of its dirt and sin is beyond our comprehension. A heart is made pure as Christ washes and cleans it. I once heard someone pray, "Lord wash my heart." That's a good prayer. But becoming pure in heart doesn't end with prayer. It comes as we lean on grace. It comes as we acknowledge our utter inability to become pure women and our need for Christ to make us clean and to purify us through and through. Putting Christ first takes care of everything else.
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God bless you all, and may the Lord give you grace as you try to put him first :)
Abigail Prudence
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