#6 - pure of heart

Pure is a difficult concept in our world. We can get fresh, organic, or shiny new, but still contaminated. My orange juice says it is pure. The chocolate bar says "pure" right on the package. But I saw the 20/20 special when they stick that candy bar under the microscope they find all sorts of "contaminants" in there. Gross! I'm gonna lose my appetite just thinking about it.
Let's move to a more palatable example, eyeglasses. I don't wear my glasses very often and when I do I clean them every time. It drives me nuts to have smears and spots. But I have seen people who wear glasses every waking moment and they are so dirty, I can't imagine that they can see anything! The contaminants on the lens hinder clear vision.
Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will see God.
When contaminants are allowed into my life, my view of God gets cloudy. When my motives are selfish, I am not like Jesus. When my music, movie, tv, book selection is less then sanctified, I invite contaminants. When I lose my temper, fail to forgive, hold a grudge, or speak a harsh word, my view of God is not clear.
If my view of God is clear, then my heart will be more pure. As my heart becomes more pure, my view of God is clearer. From my clearer view of God, I desire to clean up my heart even a little more. And that my friends is the process, call it sanctification if you want, whereby I become all that God wants me to be.
p.s. not even sure that "whereby" is properly used in that last sentence, but it sounded cool.