Heart Work

‘Can any mortal be pure? Can anyone born of a woman be just?’ Job 15:14.

Eliphaz challenged Job saying ‘can any mortal be pure? Can anyone born of a woman be just?’ Meanwhile Jesus says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Jesus will not demand what is not possible. Like Eliphaz, the culture is saying can anyone really be pure? There is a lie going around that states that it is only God that knows those that are pure. This lie kind of gives people a reason not to strive for purity but guess what the pure know themselves. The Bible says that unto the pure God shows Himself pure [2 Sam.22:27]. Job told his friends ‘I am pure, I have done right’. If you have done right you would know. In fact the Bible says even a child is known by his ways whether he is pure or not. If you are impure you would know. The problem with Job was not an issue of purity; it was an issue of sovereignty. God just chose that Job would pass through those trials. Job’s friends were asking the wrong questions because they were saying ‘if you were pure would this have happened to you?’ what happened to Job had nothing to do with purity. They spent a lot of time asking the wrong questions. God had to step in and challenge Job ‘were you there when I made the heavens?’ And God broke Job down ‘I am God and I decide what I want to do’.

This work we are doing is a heart work. Jesus focuses on the heart but as human beings a lot of the time we tend to focus on the exterior. Even prophets and men of God sometimes get carried away and focus on the outside. When Samuel was going to anoint David, God had told him in the house of Jesse I have found myself someone after My heart. ‘Samuel took one look at Eliab and thought, “Surely this is the LORD’s anointed!’ 1 Sam.16:6. But the Lord said I have not chosen him. May God never reject you! Yet what determines it is a matter of the heart. I remember sitting beside one of my mentors on his deathbed and he said something to me that I will never forget. He said, ‘this work is a heart work, just make sure your heart is right with God’.

Prayer: Lord God, change my heart and the hearts of all my descendants, so that we will love You with all our heart and soul, in Jesus Name. [Deut.30:6]