TODAY’S
WORD FOR FRIDAY JULY 26, 2013.
PURITY
DEFINITION:
Freedom
from anything that pollutes or contaminates; uncontaminated; without evil;
guiltless; undefiled.
SCRIPTURE:
But
the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to
yield and without hypocrisy. James 3:17.
He
who has clean hands and a pure heart; he shall receive blessing from the Lord.
Psalm 24:4-5
I
stir up your pure minds by way of a reminder that you may be mindful of the
words which were spoken by the holy prophets.
II
Peter 3:1-2.
Holding
the mystery (revealed truth) of our faith with a pure conscience.
I
Timothy 3:9.
KNOWLEDGE
AND EXPERIENCE:
People
today are very concerned about how they look. It is mind boggling to think of
all the money, time and effort people spend to make themselves look good.
People try everything including cosmetics, beauty treatments, exercise, gyms,
spas, diets and when all else fails, plastic surgery.
All
this is just to improve their outward appearance. What we should be more
concerned about is what we are like on the inside because although we look on
the outward appearance, the Lord looks at what is on the inside. “The Lord does
not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance but
the Lord looks at the heart” (I Samuel 16:7).
Believers
should spend their time and effort on making sure they are pure and
uncontaminated on the inside. God wants us to be pure. When we have accepted
Jesus as our Savior, He wants us to “clean up our act” and reject our old
sinful ways.
II
Timothy 2:15 says that, “everyone who names the name of the Lord must turn from
wickedness.” There is no inherent purity in any of us because we are all
sinners. To be pure we must go to the only source of purity. That source is God.
James
tells us, in the verse above, that God’s wisdom is first pure and then
peaceable, gentle, willing to yield and without hypocrisy.
Purity
requires a change in the believers’ heart. When our hearts are pure it will be
evident because we will strive to live honest and moral lives that honor the
Lord our God. If our hearts are pure our hands will be clean and uncontaminated
by evil deeds. The believer must have clean hands and a pure heart. (The verse
from Psalms that we have put above)
A
pure heart will lead us to pure thoughts. Peter writes in II Peter (above) to
believers desiring to stir up our minds to remember and follow the words given
to us in God's Holy Word. If we obey God's Word we will keep our minds pure.
God
created us with a conscience to hold us accountable. A pure conscience enables
us to discern right from wrong. When we sin we will no longer have a pure
conscience and we will feel the guilt of our sin. Living a pure life by our
faith as a believer is something we should always strive for.
When
we were raising our children we often talked about the need of purity in our
talk, our walk and our actions. We need to always be on our guard because the
devil will always do his best to set unassuming traps for us to fall into to
cause us to sin and contaminate the purity God wants in our heart, our mind and
our conscience.
LEARNING:
Our
memory verse for this week is found in Hebrews 10:36.
For
you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may
have received what was promised.
PRAYER:
Help
me to live a pure life today, honoring You with my thoughts and my actions.
