Make Me Sincere
Reading: 1 Peter 2:1-3
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”
The Bible uses many words to describe a person who is pure in heart: having integrity, honest, sincere, guileless, unadulterated. An individual with these attributes has no hidden motives or actions.
Children are sometimes described as innocent or naive. They are often transparently honest. Deceit is a learned behavior in children, frequently a self-protective mechanism to avoid punishment.
Peter asks his readers to come to God as children, growing and developing into the people of God. We are to come sincerely wanting to be fed. Only the true seeker, not the one who pretends, can grow.
There is a common expression, “What you see is what you get.” Self-examination is required of all Christians. We all have mixed motives for our actions. Do we really want to learn from God and serve God, or are we looking for approval from those around us? When we confess to God our interior motives and deceitful intentions, asking for a pure heart, we, too, will see God.
For Reflection: Do I truly believe the things I say I believe?
A Prayer Seed:
Blest are the pure in heart,
for they shall see our God;
The secret of the Lord is theirs;
Their soul in Christ’s abode.
Lord, we Thy presence seek;
May ours this blessing be;
Give us a pure and lowly heart,
A temple fit for Thee.
John Keble, 1819
