After prayer time with the ladies this past week there was a short discussion about the controversial upcoming Super Bowl halftime show featuring a Puerto Rican singer who has sworn never to perform in the USA because of the political climate.
Most of my friends enjoy football, and so I asked the question, “If you had tickets to the Super Bowl would you sit it out as a statement of protest against the halftime show?” The answer was “No.”
We find that there are some things in life that don’t sit well with our morals and we make an effort to avoid them, but with others, well, we think maybe we can work around the issue.
Considering this conversation later in the week I checked with Google’s AI and asked when the last Super Bowl halftime show was family-friendly. You might have guessed the answer – it said something to the effect of “It is subjective, as moral views change over time.” This immediately brought to mind the famous verse from Judges in the Bible, “In those days there was no king in Israel: Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.”
Without God we choose what is right and what is wrong according to how it benefits us most. Although this is what we hear in the world today God’s truth even back in the Judges days was forgotten by many.
Cultivating Purity
Because I have been trying to actively keep my heart pure by curating what goes into my heart and my mind, this AI answer made me consider if my moral code is correct, according to the Scriptures. Jesus said, “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and those things defile the person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, other immoral sexual acts, thefts, false testimonies and slanderous statements. These are the things that defile the person.”
Reading this I considered how those evil thoughts get into my heart in the first place. I know from the Bible I was born into sin, and sin is a part of my natural self without God. Thankfully, though, once I became a follower of Jesus my natural self is being put to death day by day because Jesus is working on my behalf to make me more like Himself. In John 3:6, Jesus speaks of being born again and says, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” So, that is what I want, more of the mind of the Holy Spirit and less of the mind of my flesh.
From there I went to Jesus’ teaching of the beatitudes, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Yes, I want to see God when I die, so I intentionally strive to be pure in my heart. To achieve this goal I need to make choices – moral choices according to God’s words.
What Goes in Matters
Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body,” so I must be careful of what I see, and that the things I allow into my mind and heart are good for me. I must eliminate things that are bad for me and increase those that do me good to accomplish my goal. I have found this need to keep evil out and add good is just as important with my mind as with my body by eating healthy foods and shunning those that are not.
Years ago I stopped reading books that took Jesus’ name in vain. If I came across this, no matter if I was almost to the end, I returned the book unfinished to the library. As a positive, I have increased my reading of Christian literature, and finally I completed “Pilgrim’s Progress.”
As do most of you, I check my phone or table each day to follow the news, keep up with the weather, to read my mail, etc. There are many enticing items available to click on in each of these areas that would lead me down the trail of pursuing one video or story after another, but by keeping in the forefront of my mind that I desire purity I intentionally do not read or view articles that might stain my mind with violence and horror.
Is it easy to keep a pure heart? Of course not, if it were easy I wouldn’t need the Holy Spirit to guide me and chastise me when I go astray, but it is certainly worth the effort because when my heart is pure I can pray and seek the Lord’s counsel better, and for me, my time with the Lord is the most important relationship in my life. It is well worth my efforts to become the woman God created me to be – pure in heart.
Editor’s note: Amy Patsch writes from Ocean City. Email her at writerGoodGod@gmail.com.
