Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
This verse is found in a section of Scripture commonly known as the Beatitudes, during a sermon we call the Sermon on the Mount. As we often say, we're paying heightened attention to this sermon because the one preaching it is Jesus. It's in red letters—Jesus is talking, and the listeners are hearing directly from the Savior of the world what He wants them to know about what life should look like here on earth relative to God.
Jesus Cared About Life Here and Now
I think we have to stop sometimes and consider the reality of the ministry that Jesus came to do here on earth. Sometimes we can reduce it all the way down to what we know in John chapter 3, verse 16—that God so loved the world that He gave His Son Jesus so that we would know salvation. His death, burial, and resurrection is the primary way that we think of what Jesus has done on our behalf.
Did you know that Jesus was extremely concerned not just with life later on after you die—He actually cared about life here and now? When you go back through and read the words of Jesus, it's very, very rare that you'll see Him teaching, guiding, shepherding, and instructing according to what happens later on. You'll more often see Him referring to what should be true about our lives right now. He's saying that we should be longing for a connection to Him—what it means to know Him—and asking how that influences how we live here on earth.
The easiest example we can point to is when Jesus is teaching, just a little bit later than what we just read, about how to pray. Do you remember what He says is the first thing you should ask for? He gives this introduction: "Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Thy name." Then the first thing He says we should be asking is that the kingdom would come to earth just as it is in heaven. That message is woven throughout the teaching of Jesus—that our lives here on earth can be in communion, connection, and influenced by His power and authority right now.
Seeing God on Earth
One of the ways that we can experience that communion and connection to Him is described in the verse we just read: "God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God." He's talking about human people on earth being blessed to see God. That right there should spark something in us in the way of curiosity.
Number one: is it actually possible for me, here on earth, while living my daily rhythms, to see God?
Number two: if that's true, how in the world can that happen? What He says is, "Blessed are the pure in heart."
Sometimes we can be fooled into thinking that it's our performance, our ability, what we do, that will earn us the right to possibly see God while we're here on earth. But what He says is that it's really about the heart's intention that will unlock the gateway to the revelation of God.
In other words, if we don't have a hidden life with God, our public life for God is not going to bear fruit. If we don't have a connection to Christ in the places that no one can see—in our hearts—what's happening in our world is going to be consumed by our own performance and our own way forward. But if our hearts are before Him with a desperate dependence and a desire to see and know Him, we will begin to see God at work in so many ways. Not only at work, but we'll see the love and the power of God in the people around us. Let's have pure hearts.