One time at the clinic during neonatal admissions, I experienced a moment of silent prayer.
When I looked at the newborns that came in with their mothers, I thought, “Oh my, how pure and untouched their hearts must be.”
Just the feel of their little fingers communicated the purity of their hearts, and I said to God,
“Please keep my heart purified.”
You know, after Daniel, my next best character in the Bible is David. David was described as a man after God’s heart, not because he was perfect but because he sought true intimacy with God. Whenever I read the Psalms, I see myself in David, his raw, unfiltered, and vulnerable state, laying all his insecurities and tendencies before God.
He never assumed perfection. He showed he was human, open, and vulnerable to sin and compromise. And for this reason, he had no choice but to depend on God. He understood the purity and Holiness of God’s love and desired that his heart be purified and cleansed to experience this love.
How beautiful David’s words were when he said, “Keep creating in me a clean heart. Fill me with pure thoughts and Holy desires, ready to please you.
“Keep creating in me a clean heart” has been my prayer for some time now. I would say to God, “Please make me one with A Pure Heart and two Clean Hands so I may worship you in spirit and truth.
To be pure in Heart is to be without thoughts of evil or thoughts that contradict the Holiness of God. But how is this even possible considering we are humans? How can we remain pure in Hearts when we are constantly being influenced by other external factors in the world?
We can, by being intimate with God. When we desire more of God, we find that we become less of ourselves, and we become more filled with his nature. The nature of God is Holy, his love is Holy, his ways are Holy, and his thoughts are Holy. How possible is it for us to adopt Holiness as a lifestyle if God doesn’t help us? Impossible! By our efforts, we can’t live as God will have us live, and for that reason, true intimacy with God should be our everyday pursuit.
I was listening to Steffany Gretzinger sometime ago, and she said something that stuck with me. She said, “Knowing Jesus is enough and should be enough for you. There is nothing you should desire more than Jesus, there is nothing you should want more than Jesus. Her words got me tearing up as I could feel the true intimacy she shared with God.
True intimacy is the bedrock of everything. It helps us stay surrendered, it helps us stay obedient. It helps our nature become more like that of God, Holy as He is Holy.
“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts…” James 4:8
Our hands become cleansed, and our hearts are purified from a place of intimacy. David understood the place of intimacy, and he understood the need to always run to God, and that’s why he was called the man after God’s heart.
How do we become more intimate with God?
1- Putting away any form of pretentious, performative and hypocritical Christianity
God said, “ Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened by religious rituals that provide no peace, and I will give you rest, refreshing your souls with salvation. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, following Me as My disciple, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest and renewal for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)
God isn’t asking us to come to him perfect. God isn’t asking us to do things in order to prove that we should be accepted into His love.
All he is saying is, Come! Come as you are!
Set yourself free from what you should and shouldn’t do, and HE WILL MAKE YOU. When we come to Christ, we come to Christ as imperfect, lost individuals, and by dwelling more in Him, we become transformed to be more like Him and to adopt His nature of Holiness.
Can you see this??
God is the one who does the making, the pruning, and the transformation. He is the one able to make your heart pure and your hands clean. He is the one able to help you adopt Holiness as a lifestyle. This will not be by your performative actions or by pretending to be someone you are not, but by HIM alone.
Do you desire true intimacy with God today, please go to him as you are. Even if you feel like the most unholy and filthiest human ever, please don’t hesitate to be in His presence. Go to God and let him transform you into someone you never thought you could be.
2 – Complete yieldedness to God.
After you have been transformed by God, you need to stay yielded. I read about the story of Noah, who God highlighted as one who pleased Him. And I learned from Noah’s life that He was a man who was completely yielded to God. The Bible described Noah as a man who walked and lived in habitual fellowship with God.
How do you walk and live in habitual fellowship with God? You do so through prayers, worship, and study of the scriptures. Another man highlighted as a man who found favor with God was Daniel. It was said that he had a consistent prayer and word study life. Please note that you are not doing these things because you are trying to tick them off your to-do list but because they are the bread and butter of your life that keeps you yielded to God. Also, you don’t do these things because you are trying to prove a point of being the highest Christian but because you love God.
If you love someone, wouldn’t you want to hear them speak every day? If you say you truly love God, wouldn’t you want to hear Him speak to you every day? And you can hear Him through prayer, consecration, worship, and the study of His word.
The psalms say, “What bliss you experience when your heart is pure! for then your eyes will open to see more and more of God.” As we yield ourselves completely to God, may our hearts be purified and our hands cleansed so we can ascend the mountains of Yahweh.
Love and sparkles,
CDB
