January 6 (Matthew 5:8 NIV)

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Pure gold is gold without any other substance mixed in. A pure heart, in the Christian perspective,is a heart focused on accomplishing God’s will for God’s glory without any distractions. For most Christians, our difficulties in keeping a pure heart aren’t a result of a major sin that destroys our relationship, it’s that other good things distract us from our goal of doing God’s will. We begin with good intentions, but get distracted by other needs and concerns that may be good things to do, but they aren’t what God has in store for us.

When I was growing up, my father would take us fishing. One day, my dad let me steer the boat. He taught me to keep two marks in mind: a mark in front of us and a mark behind us. As I was steering the boat, my brother and I started talking and laughing and I got off track. It wasn’t that I did something wrong so much as that by not doing things right, I lost sight of my goal.

It’s easy to get sidetracked in our desire to serve God, because there are so many different ways to serve Him. Sometimes, those other ways seem to be a lot more enjoyable than following the path God put us on. When we follow those paths, though, we lose sight of God’s plan, of God’s leadership, of God Himself. Paul described the focus we need as “press[ing] toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Our one job is to focus on Jesus Christ with pure motives and intentions and keep doing what God’s called us to do without being distracted. A pure heart seeks to accomplish God’s will without wavering in commitment and without getting distracted. The end result is that we’ll see God.

Lord, keep my heart pure and focused on doing Your will. Help me to see You in my heart. Help me to see You in the faces of the people I work with along the way. Help me to see You when my time on earth is finished.