What Kind Of Heart? - Matthew 5:8

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

 What kind of heart do most people have? It’s a daunting question if only because it presumes to suggest that one man could possibly know what is in the heart of another. Were someone ever to ask me to make that call on a fellow human being I would “tap out” so fast it would make their head spin. That kind of judgment call is way above my pay-grade. I’m just a meat cutter by trade. And while I can assure you I could handle any meat cutting job put to me I am sorely ill-equipped to judge another’s heart.
    The Greek word for “pure” is katharos: clean, pure, unstained. Other synonyms include
upright, uncontaminated, and purged. Christ used the word to describe the only condition of the heart in which one would “see God.” But pure? Which of us can say with all certainty that our heart is pure? “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” - Jeremiah 17:9.
    How does one come to possess what Jesus told us would be required to “see God?” This question is one which continues to rise each time I attempt to spread the word of God among unbelievers. “Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: ‘Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.’” - Matthew 13: 3-4. Jesus went on to explain to His disciples - “Therefore hear the parable of the sower:  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.” - Matthew 13: 18-19.
    You know the scenario: two men sit in the same pew on the same Sunday and hear the word of God. One man is convicted and receives it in his heart, yet the other man hears only the background noise of a sermon being preached as he ponders those things which in his heart hold the utmost importance. What kind of hearts do we have?
    The call to cleanse our hearts of the world’s background noise is redundant in Scripture -
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” - James 4:8. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.” - Psalm 51:10. But how does someone who doesn’t want to hear the word of God do that? Many become outright combative at the very mention of the holy name of Jesus Christ. We cannot force them to listen to us. But as Christians let us remember the words of Charles Spurgeon - “If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
    While many will not sit still for the word of God we can still pray fervently for the redemption of their souls. What God wills cannot be undone by the machinations of mankind. Let us continue to share the Gospel with as many as will listen and God will bring the harvest.