Topic: Why you need biblical community [RICK WARREN Devotional 7 January 2020]

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“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8 NIV).

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that you are blessed when your heart is pure (Matthew 5:8). What does it mean to be “pure in heart”? Today, we’d use the word integrity. God blesses you when you live your life with integrity.

Having integrity doesn’t mean you’re sinless or that you don’t make mistakes. If that were the standard, none of us could be considered pure in heart. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (KJV).

The Bible says that Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and Paul all had integrity. Yet none of them were perfect. God called David a man after his own heart, yet David committed adultery and arranged the murder of the woman’s husband—and faced the consequences for his sin.

We can learn from these biblical heroes that you don’t need to be perfect to be a person of integrity. You just need a heart that is wholly committed to God.

God is more interested in seeing your heart committed to him than he is in the sins you’ve committed. He looks at why you do what you do regardless of what you do. In 1 Samuel 16:7, God says, “People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (NIV).

No, you’ll never be perfect in this life. You’ll never be sinless, but you can sin less. You can commit to living with integrity and to maintaining a heart that is pure and devoted to God.

Talk About It

• Why do many people tend to value appearance and personality over character when they look at other people?
• If someone could look into your heart, what do you think they would see? How would that align with what God would want them to find?
• What are some ways you struggle to maintain a pure heart? Ask God to help you understand why certain areas are difficult for you, and ask him to help you change.