February 9
“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
Continuing on now with thoughts on drawing near to God (before we dive into the 24 principles on Overcoming Temptation), let’s think a bit on what James might mean when he says to purify our hearts. How do I purify my heart? What kinds of things make it “dirty”? Who is he talking to, exactly? Aren’t our hearts already pure if we are believers in Christ? Why do I need to purify my heart if I am already pure by the blood of Jesus?
First of all, I believe Paul is speaking to believers, “brethren,” not unbelievers, as is borne out throughout the epistle. So clearly he has Christians in mind here. And just like John exhorts us to confess our sins (1 John 1:9), also speaking to believers, this is a reminder that we all have sins that we need to be confessing to God. If any of us thinks he is a good person in God’s eyes, perhaps I am being harsh, but I imagine that person hasn’t examined him or herself very carefully.
There are all kinds of pride and greed and envy and lust lurking in our hearts, at least in mine. And just when I think I have made progress overcoming a particular area, the Lord peels back the curtain and peels the onion of my heart a bit more, and I see there is still more there to deal with. My heart is “desperately sick” and “deceitful” (Jeremiah 17:9). But what about the new heart that Christ has given me? If He has cleansed me and given me a new heart, why do I still struggle with these things?
Paul explains that while we have the new man, a regenerated, born again spirit indwelling us, we still have a corrupt flesh that this new man is indwelling. I don’t pretend to know exactly how all this works, because if you try to study heart and will and mind and soul in the scriptures, it is very difficult if not impossible to draw clear distinctions about what is what. So I accept that I am a new creature in Christ, but I have a lot of old stuff (habits, history, memories, wrong ways of thinking, wrong ways of reacting, pride, impatience, etc.) still a part of me that I have to diligently learn to understand and overcome.
Even though I am a new man in Christ, I still see a lot of old nature that hinders me from living fully as that new man. For starters, I don’t even see the old man for what it is often times. I can easily be blind to offensive behaviors and attitudes that I will even justify and defend if no one comes along and shows me how my behavior is hurting others. I may even label my offensive behavior “godly” and pride myself that I am speaking out about things, when really I am just giving offense. I need others to help me see myself. I need to be seeking the input and feedback of others.
I need to be asking the Lord daily to reveal to me and remove hurtful, offensive behaviors, behaviors that others would look at and think, “that is not Christ, that is not how a godly man would react.” I have lived many years being blind to these kinds of things, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t have time enough left to keep blundering through life pushing others around and thinking I know better, getting impatient and being pushy. I think we desperately need to humbly, without reacting, get feedback from others any way we can and be very thankful to anyone who would be kind enough to be honest with us. No shooting the messenger, especially when we are asking for feedback.
Therefore, one starting point in our quest to purify our hearts is to see ourselves clearly, as others see us, and not in the puffed up view of ourselves that we have. We need to ask the Lord daily to reveal our sins to us and to help us see ourselves rightly. Make this a habit that you continually practice, and as you begin to see yourself rightly, you can repent and ask the Lord to heal you and purify you.