Heart to Heart

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Matthew 5:8

The heart is a Biblical big deal. Check your concordance and you’ll see the word used about a billion times. The heart is “at the heart” of the ancient understanding of who we are and where we meet God.

The heart is the center of our knowing. Jesus said, “Those with pure hearts are blessed because they will see God.” Jesus is not imploring moral purity here but rather he is imparting wisdom about the heart’s capacity for spiritual awareness. The unencumbered heart sees the things of God.

Jeremiah says that in order to find God, you must search for God with all your heart. “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with your whole heart.” The heart is our built-in GPS. Jeremiah and Jesus are drawing from the same deep spiritual well of wisdom. The heart and its health are key to knowing God.

The problem is, as those fallen and frail, our hearts can be scattered and tattered. They can be weary and worn. A heart can be hardened or darkened, saints have insisted. And what child of God doesn’t know that hearts can be broken and then hidden, maybe buried for good.

Our hearts are often not whole, they are divided. We all have a “cardial attention deficit” and are incessantly pulled this way and that. This chaotic world and an unfocused heart in it will always make for shallow life.

No wonder Jesus teaches us that the heart must be purified. No wonder St. Paul tells us it must be guarded. No wonder the Psalmist prays, “Unite my heart, O God.” Throughout the ages, that prayer for a transformed heart is instinctually uttered and though it is a work of grace, we’ve known there is spiritual work for us to do. God’s deep work in us so humbly cooperative. So, we must begin cooperating with grace that heals, that awakens, that unites, that purifies, that strengthens and that fills. Shall we? And then with a whole heart, we will see the things of God. —By Dr. Burt Burleson