The Bible says in Matthew 5 verse 8, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.”

In today’s world, where we are exposed to so many worldly things, a pure heart is sometimes very hard to obtain. It seems that the devil has his traps set up all around us! He’s waiting for us to be caught in these traps so that he can destroy our hearts and souls forever!

We all know that some things are wrong and we most likely avoid the very obvious impurities, but the devil has made many wrong things seem right and we haven’t even noticed that we’ve fallen into his trap already!

Let’s look at some examples of these hidden traps he uses to keep us from having a pure heart.

• Our choices in entertainment can cause the thoughts of our hearts to be impure…

Many of today’s movies and t.v. shows portray ungodly relationships that we watch and find ourselves hoping that the said characters on the screen will “end up together”, not even caring that they are not scripturally divorced or that they have engaged in fornication. All the while, because they are “pretend”, we throw all Biblical thinking out the window because it is romantic or entertaining to us!

Some of today’s television shows and movies have also started to add homosexual characters to many of the viewer’s favorite shows! Even some of our television commercials are portraying a “Normal American Family” as one of having two same sex parents!

We need to be careful of what we watch! Whether we realize it or not, watching immoral things will start to desensitize our thoughts and hearts and we won’t even know it when our hearts have become impure.

• What we hear on a regular basis can cause us to have an impure heart…

Just like making the right choices in what we watch, we need to make sure we make the right choices in what we listen to! We need to take careful thought in our entertainment choices as to avoid songs, books and even the friends we keep company with that will harm the purity of our hearts because of cursing or bad and negative attitudes.

Ephesians 5:6 says, “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.” Vs. 7 goes on to say, “Be not ye therefore partakers with them.” (KJV)

Our hearts can easily be swayed toward impurity when we hear impure things on a daily basis.

• We need to try to control our thoughts as to keep evil thoughts and temptations out of our minds in order to obtain a pure heart…

We all know that we can’t keep from thinking things we shouldn’t at times, but it’s how we treat those bad thoughts once they appear. We should always pray for God’s help in keeping them away and helping us overcome them.

We should never allow jealousy, anger or hate to enter our hearts! Matthew 15:19 says, “For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: Vs. 20 goes on to say, “These are the things which defile a man…”   (KJV)

Okay, we’ve looked at some things that will cause us to have an impure heart. Now let’s look at what we can do in order to obtain a pure heart…

• We can pray for God to help us have a pure heart! In Psalm 51, David writes in verse 10 “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (KJV)

• Loving others will help us to have a pure heart! In I Timothy 1:5, Paul writes, “Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:” (KJV)

Again in I John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” (KJV)

The devil can’t compete with love!

• We can guard our words in order to have a pure heart! Reading in James 5:11, the Bible says, “Speak not evil one of another, brethren.” (KJV) and again in Psalm 34: 13, “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.” (KJV)

• Lastly, filling much of our time in deep Bible study will help us have a pure heart!

In 2 Timothy 2:15, we read “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (KJV)

Finally, In Ephesians 6:11-18 we can read of the “Armour of God”. Looking closely at verse 11 saying, “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (KJV)

Let’s all remember these scriptures as we strive to have that clean and pure heart that God wants for us!

Kitty Hackney @ http://ahappyheart3.blogspot.com/