A Clean Heart
The Word says about a clean heart as in a request for God to create it in him. Would that mean that he, she or you and I don't have one to begin with? Would that our hearts be clean, what would be different in our lives? Would it be better or would it give other people the opportunity to take advantage of us? However in that passage, the speaker asks for the clean heart with a condition. He would like to teach transgressors the ways of God and convert sinners over to Him (Psalm 51:10-13 KJV). Could he not have done this with the heart that he has seeing that it is a will of his to teach the ways of God? Doesn't he already have a clean heart by faith or has he discovered something within himself that would not be pleasing to God (Romans 12:1 KJV)?
Have you ever seen beautiful people but when you get the chance to know them that the inside doesn't match the outward appearance? Have you seen the not so appealing people and then find that those people have a heart of gold and you regret missing out on the wonderful friendship you could have had earlier? But then there are those who are ugly on the inside and out. You know, there is a saying about being ugly to the bone. Have you met anyone that just seemed to have a complaint about everything but when you try to shed some light, even being determined to keep your joy no matter how hard that person tries to crap up your day... and still you couldn't spread not one drop of sunshine on an otherwise gloomy day for this person (Philippians 2:13-15 AMP)? Should you give up? Should you keep trying until you find that his grim look on everything starts to affect you (Titus 3:1-11 AMP)? What would this test be? Why did God give it to you?
There was this girl I worked with when I was a teenager in a restaurant. It was really my first job where I was making a steady paycheck. She wasn't liked by too many people and I figured she wasn't having all that great of a time in school. I had my friends there who were like everyone else to just stay away from the goofy girl with the big thick glasses. She spat when she spoke and this was not a good quality especially during the lunch break when the employees usually sat together. I would sit with her and my friends would call me over to them. I sympathized for her and said I would stay seated where I am. Sometimes, I might have had to change my drink because of food I had not eaten was floating in my glass, but I thought it was the right thing to do. This went on for a few months. I received a promotion to be the crew leader over the gang and even was trained do the scheduling of work hours. I deliberately changed some things because those that would not work were getting more hours then they deserved. But this girl expressed to me a vision she had in being an accountant when she graduates college. She said that getting on the register would be great experience for her. So I scheduled her training for the register and gave her more hours so she could meet that goal. I thought we got along well and I believed I helped build her confidence.
Thirty years later I saw this same girl (now a woman but still looking the same). I was going into a restaurant for a business lunch and there she was coming out of it. I said hello to her by calling her name. She turned and looked and said, "you have the advantage. Where do you know me from?" I jogged her memory by mentioning the restaurant name and who I was. She paused for a moment and said, "oh yes, I remember you. You were the one that slept with the managers to get your promotion. Yeah, good to see you again. I have to go my lunch hour is over." She was with someone and she left me stunned that she would say such a thing to me. I couldn't think of anything to defend myself because of the shock. Why... or how could she think that's what I did to get promoted? I sat with her spitty face when no one else did!!! They asked me out loud why did I sit with her, and she answered, "because Lenora is nice." I gave her extra hours when the managers wouldn't!!! I put up with her goofy butt when her own classmates talked about her. Yet it was those same class mates that weren't up for the promotion that talked about me behind my back. They weren't friends with her but they were around her long enough to spread gossip that she didn't defend me when she heard it. She believed it and all of these years later actually spoke it to me. Was it a waste for me to have even tried?
Just listen (or read) my reaction again. I didn't feel this way when I did those things for her as a teenager, but when she believed and said what her taunters said to her about me, my reaction was spitty face, goofy butt, and looked what I did for her. Was it that all along or did a weed grow somewhere trying to choke out the Word. Should there ever be a time where a Christian should be so shocked that the Word couldn't be thought of? Yet, there I was. I had to examine and evaluate some things myself so when I present myself, it will be acceptable unto God.
People can say the oddest things and they are more than likely the ones that are the closest to you. We still have to recall that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities and evil spirits in high places (Ephesians 6:12 KJV). Having that understanding, we also must be aware of what we think, say and do. Just as someone saying something off of the cuff to us and it be in passing with them not thinking of how it is affecting you - you could have done the same thing and not realize it as well.
Ex-super model Cindy Crawford said in an interview that she never thought she was pretty. She felt awkward and gangly for so long. Even her sister didn't give her support. When she found that people called her mole a beauty mark, her sister said to her that the mole has to be on the other side to be considered a mark of beauty. Therefore in her mind, it being on the wrong side, it must then be a mark to show how ugly you are. How she went from one state of mind to the other is something between her and God, yet there she was.
In dating and later marrying the person we believed was perfect for sharing the rest of our lives with, we come to better know the other after the vows have been made. We find little things that we weren't privy to when the dating process was going on. Some of us dated because we were led of the Spirit to do so while others were following what is expected of us being the age we are and having the feelings we have. In those discoveries of the new characteristics of the other, whether we like those new things or not, it is a clear reflection of seed we have been sowing in our own lives. As much as we think that there can be wolves coming to church services to get a clean wholesome person for marriage, God is still not mocked (Galatians 6:7 KJV). That which a man soweth, he shall also reap. If you marry a treacherous deceitful person it could very well mean he/she gravitated toward you because they recognized something there that has been hidden from everyone else - everyone but God (1 Samuel 16:& KJV).
Have you ever seen beautiful people but when you get the chance to know them that the inside doesn't match the outward appearance? Have you seen the not so appealing people and then find that those people have a heart of gold and you regret missing out on the wonderful friendship you could have had earlier? But then there are those who are ugly on the inside and out. You know, there is a saying about being ugly to the bone. Have you met anyone that just seemed to have a complaint about everything but when you try to shed some light, even being determined to keep your joy no matter how hard that person tries to crap up your day... and still you couldn't spread not one drop of sunshine on an otherwise gloomy day for this person (Philippians 2:13-15 AMP)? Should you give up? Should you keep trying until you find that his grim look on everything starts to affect you (Titus 3:1-11 AMP)? What would this test be? Why did God give it to you?
There was this girl I worked with when I was a teenager in a restaurant. It was really my first job where I was making a steady paycheck. She wasn't liked by too many people and I figured she wasn't having all that great of a time in school. I had my friends there who were like everyone else to just stay away from the goofy girl with the big thick glasses. She spat when she spoke and this was not a good quality especially during the lunch break when the employees usually sat together. I would sit with her and my friends would call me over to them. I sympathized for her and said I would stay seated where I am. Sometimes, I might have had to change my drink because of food I had not eaten was floating in my glass, but I thought it was the right thing to do. This went on for a few months. I received a promotion to be the crew leader over the gang and even was trained do the scheduling of work hours. I deliberately changed some things because those that would not work were getting more hours then they deserved. But this girl expressed to me a vision she had in being an accountant when she graduates college. She said that getting on the register would be great experience for her. So I scheduled her training for the register and gave her more hours so she could meet that goal. I thought we got along well and I believed I helped build her confidence.
Thirty years later I saw this same girl (now a woman but still looking the same). I was going into a restaurant for a business lunch and there she was coming out of it. I said hello to her by calling her name. She turned and looked and said, "you have the advantage. Where do you know me from?" I jogged her memory by mentioning the restaurant name and who I was. She paused for a moment and said, "oh yes, I remember you. You were the one that slept with the managers to get your promotion. Yeah, good to see you again. I have to go my lunch hour is over." She was with someone and she left me stunned that she would say such a thing to me. I couldn't think of anything to defend myself because of the shock. Why... or how could she think that's what I did to get promoted? I sat with her spitty face when no one else did!!! They asked me out loud why did I sit with her, and she answered, "because Lenora is nice." I gave her extra hours when the managers wouldn't!!! I put up with her goofy butt when her own classmates talked about her. Yet it was those same class mates that weren't up for the promotion that talked about me behind my back. They weren't friends with her but they were around her long enough to spread gossip that she didn't defend me when she heard it. She believed it and all of these years later actually spoke it to me. Was it a waste for me to have even tried?
Just listen (or read) my reaction again. I didn't feel this way when I did those things for her as a teenager, but when she believed and said what her taunters said to her about me, my reaction was spitty face, goofy butt, and looked what I did for her. Was it that all along or did a weed grow somewhere trying to choke out the Word. Should there ever be a time where a Christian should be so shocked that the Word couldn't be thought of? Yet, there I was. I had to examine and evaluate some things myself so when I present myself, it will be acceptable unto God.
People can say the oddest things and they are more than likely the ones that are the closest to you. We still have to recall that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities and evil spirits in high places (Ephesians 6:12 KJV). Having that understanding, we also must be aware of what we think, say and do. Just as someone saying something off of the cuff to us and it be in passing with them not thinking of how it is affecting you - you could have done the same thing and not realize it as well.
Ex-super model Cindy Crawford said in an interview that she never thought she was pretty. She felt awkward and gangly for so long. Even her sister didn't give her support. When she found that people called her mole a beauty mark, her sister said to her that the mole has to be on the other side to be considered a mark of beauty. Therefore in her mind, it being on the wrong side, it must then be a mark to show how ugly you are. How she went from one state of mind to the other is something between her and God, yet there she was.
In dating and later marrying the person we believed was perfect for sharing the rest of our lives with, we come to better know the other after the vows have been made. We find little things that we weren't privy to when the dating process was going on. Some of us dated because we were led of the Spirit to do so while others were following what is expected of us being the age we are and having the feelings we have. In those discoveries of the new characteristics of the other, whether we like those new things or not, it is a clear reflection of seed we have been sowing in our own lives. As much as we think that there can be wolves coming to church services to get a clean wholesome person for marriage, God is still not mocked (Galatians 6:7 KJV). That which a man soweth, he shall also reap. If you marry a treacherous deceitful person it could very well mean he/she gravitated toward you because they recognized something there that has been hidden from everyone else - everyone but God (1 Samuel 16:& KJV).
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