Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
-Matthew 5: 8 NIV
As I thought about what this means I decided to google this verse. I came across this verse as reflected in the Message Bible. Here it is below.
8 “You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.
This says it so beautifully. If I get my inside world right then I will see God in the outside world.
What is my mind? What is my heart?
I turned to the dictionary for both.
1.
Heart: the heart is regarded as the center of a person’s thoughts and emotions, especially love or compassion, capacity for sympathy or generosity; compassion
2.
Mind: the part of a person that thinks, reasons, feels, and remembers
If I think in terms of love and compassion and act in terms of love and compassion, I will see God in the outside world. God is love. My inside world will be in balance with the outside world. God is everywhere. God is both in me and outside of me. If I cannot feel love in me, it will be more difficult to see love outside of me.
When I stop seeing love outside of me, it is time to do an internal check. What are my innermost thoughts? Are they anger, greed, jealousy, rage, frustration, fear? It is time to focus my mind on love and compassion so they can sink into my heart and become available for action in the outside world.
Think love.
Feel love.
Act with compassion and love.
See God.
