by Livy
(The Palace)
Matthew 5:8 is really the verse that jumped out at me.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall SEE GOD."
Those words are so powerful.
What do we get in exchange for our purity? When we offer ourselves as a living sacrifice? When we abstain from the dirty things of this world, and focus on everything that is lovely, true, praiseworthy, admirable, and heavenly? We receive the greatest treasure...GOD Himself.
We get to know Him, see Him, and learn the secrets of His heart! When we are pure in heart, we can see clearly and hear clearly by His Spirit.
Sometimes we complain about not having a boyfriend, or miss out on being invited to the hottest party in town, or be laughed at because we leave the popular kids to go reach out to the smelly outcast, or when we haven't seen certain movies or listen to certain music that everyone is talking about. But honestly...who cares?! When we look at what we GAIN in exchange for surrendering some of our temporal wants and desires....we gain JESUS. We gain knowing God's heart! How could the price of "sacrifice" that we pay possibly be weighed against the gain of having HIM?!
When we walk in purity, we walk in such a closeness with the King of Kings...it is absolutely priceless.
We must embrace the beauty of where we are at, and recognize what a blessing it is to exchange and suffer for the Kingdom...when we do our works in secret, (chap 6) when we are faithful to spend time with Him, give to the poor, pray for our friends, love the unlovable, ect...and when we feel like nobody sees and nobody cares, and nobody is there with trumpets or a pat on the back, THAT is where we gain our reward.
When we close our door and pray in secret, and exchange a lonely Saturday night of worldly-hardy time, to simply slip away and be with the King...the reward is eternal!
He is a GOOD Father who desires to give GOOD gifts to His children...and everything that He asks us to surrender, is because He has something BETTER for us.
THIS is the place to where He is calling us...a place to where we are so in love with Him, and are so in line with His heart, where we only think about the ETERNAL instead of the temporal.
I am deff not in that place yet in it's entirety. But I am learning how to abide, and return to that place when I get off track. This will take my whole life to learn, but it's totally worth learning! My prayer is that I will learn to seek His face, and His Kingdom, and His ways before anything else. That having HIS heart, will be my greatest prize and lifelong pursuit.
I pray that we will all grow closer to Him, and purer in heart, so that we can see Him, and know Him in such radical and amazing ways!