How Do I Get A Pure Heart?

Just like the question "Why Do I Need A Pure Heart?" was answered in a (well, actually 7 different) post(s), I (Catherine) am going to talk about how you get and keep a pure heart.

In the blog post "What is a Pure Heart", I put this:

HOW CAN I GET A PURE HEART?

Remember at the question before this (Do I have a pure heart?), I said "Not at first"? I never said it was not attainable!

But how can you get a pure heart? How can you make it clean?

Remember what a pure heart is? It involves holiness, right?
Well, so what is holiness? Holiness means belonging to The King of Kings. Some call Him Jesus.
To get a pure heart you must have holiness.

Then I continued to talk about holiness and other things (click here for the whole entry).
You asked the question (or, rather, I asked the question for you), How do I get a pure heart?
Did you know that someone in the Bible (King David) asked that same question?

The first part of Psalm 119:9 says:

"How can a young man keep his way pure?"

Before we go on, please let me tell you something. Just because it says "How can a young man keep his way pure" instead of "How can a young lady keep her way pure" doesn't mean that it excludes us young ladies. No. First, this Psalm was written by King David, who was obviously a boy (man). He would write it from a man's point of view. Second, women were not thought of the same way as men. They were thought of as little more than servants. They were basically servants that had children and came from wealthy families. So David would not have written "how can a young lady keep her ways pure" simply because he was writing to the men/boys, not the woman/girls. None of this dismisses us from the question or the answer.

The second part of Psalm 119:9 says:

"By keeping it according to Your word."

The "Your" in there is Jesus, the King of Kings. So we are to keep The King's word.

What is His word?

Good question. Here's the answer.

The Bible. The Bible is His word.

So how do we keep the Bible?

Another good question. (you're just full of good questions :)

In order to keep the Bible, you have to know it. Let's compare it to sports. What happens if you decided to play a sport, let's say, basketball. There are rules in basketball, right (if you say no, you need to have a talk ;)? You have to memorize them so that you don't have to break them, right? If you say no, think of this. If you don't know the rules, then you'll break them (if unwittingly) and you'll get a penalty. Also, if someone is trying to make-up a rule and say it was in the rule book all along, what could you do? If you knew the rules, then you could say "umm, sorry but what you're saying is not in the rule book.".

We need to know the Bible in a similar way. Still not convinced? Here are 3 good reasons why we should memorize the Scriptures in the Bible

1. The Bible's Scriptures Keep Us From Sin

Jesus is pure. Jesus is pure because He invented purity. The way to stay pure is to stay close to the One Who Is Pure. When you fall into sin, the Scriptures will help you out of your sin.

In Matthew 4:1-11 it reads:

NOTE: pink words were added in by me (Catherine)

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

2 And after He had fasted (fasted means that He didn't eat anything) forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

3 And the tempter (Satan, the Devil) came and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.' (all CAPS means that it was quoted from the Old Testament)"
5 Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple,
6 and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written,
'HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU';
and
'ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP,
SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.'" 7 Jesus said to him, "On the other hand, it is written, 'YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.'"
8 Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory;
9 and he said to Him, "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me."
10 Then Jesus said to him, "Go, Satan! For it is written, 'YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD, AND SERVE HIM ONLY.'"
11 Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.

Jesus Himself used the Scriptures to defeat the king of lies (Satan). He set the example that we should memorize the Scriptures that we will be able to stand up to temptation and stand firm in what we believe. Did you notice something else? Satan used the Scriptures too. That means he knows the Bible too! We have to be on our guard! And another thing, we must memorize Scripture because we won't always have a Bible on hand, so we must have a Bible in our heart.

2. Memorizing Scripture Allows Us to Seek HIS Heart

King David was praised and is well known for being a man after God's own heart. Did you know that King David was also Israel's greatest king? He was the only one known as a man after God's own heart, and he was Israel's greatest king. Does this just happen to be a coincidence? No. David searched and strove to be more like God, and God blessed him for it. HE will also bless us if we try to be more like HIM.

3. Memorizing Scripture Helps Us Pray

Have you ever had someone repeat your words? Or when you are trying to get your little baby brother/sister to say "daddy" (or "mommy") after you, aren't you so excited when they finally say "daddy" (or "mommy")? It makes you feel happy and glad that they were listening and paying attention to you. You can add Scripture to prayer. Just like when you feel happy that someone is paying attention to your words, Jesus is happy that you are listening (reading) HIS word, the Bible. Did you know that the 150 Psalms in the Bible touch every emotion? (All of the following Scriptures are from the NIV version of the Bible)

Psalm 3 and 10 is a cry of David. He is crying out the The LORD because "many rise against me" (Psalm 3:1)

Psalm 7 is David talking about The LORD being his refuge from his enemies.

Psalm 8, 9, and 18 is David praising The LORD joyfully.

Psalm 12 is David calling out to The LORD because "the faithful have vanished from among men."

Psalm 51 is David begging The LORD to forgive him of his sin(s).

Psalm 23 (a famous Psalm) is David talking about how The LORD is his shepherd and he is the sheep. Shepherds protects their sheep, just like The LORD protects HIS children.\

Psalm 27 is of David asking who he should be afraid of because "The LORD is my light and my salvation".

Psalm 35 is of David asking The LORD to come and destroy his enemies.

These are just a few of the emotions found in the Psalms. See if you can look up some yourself.

HINT: Bible gateway (see Recommended Websites) is a good place to look if you don't have a Bible available.

Keep Blooming!

Princess Catherine