How to Get a Clean Heart

Romans 5:8 God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

He didn’t wait for us to clean up our act. While we were sinners, Christ died for us.

The only way to have a pure heart is through the blood of Jesus Christ, shed on the cross for our sins. Purity of heart is the gift of God’s grace. We cannot earn it. We cannot buy it. The only way to get a pure heart is to surrender to him. 

The basis for a pure heart is not how good you’ve been. The basis for a pure heart is how good God is. It’s based on God’s character not ours. It’s based on God’s actions, not ours. It’s based on God’s goodness, not ours. 

Our good behavior does not purify our heart. But a pure heart will change our behavior.  

So my question is, what does your heart want? Deep down inside, what does your heart want? Do you want to see God in your life? 

Psalm 139:1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me.

God knows all about us. He knows that we really want to be free. He knows that we don’t want to be trapped in this sin cycle in our life. He knows that we want him to purify our heart.

The only way to do it is to surrender to him. He promises that, if we surrender, he will purify our heart.

It does not happen overnight. It is a process. It’s a lifelong process. We have a role to play in that process. Our role is surrender. Our role is to practice what we already know. Don’t worry about what we don’t know.

Just practice what we already know. Our role is to cooperate with God in becoming what we already are. 

God already sees us right now in Christ as already having a pure heart. So we are cooperating with him in becoming what we already are in his eyes. Let me explain that.  

One of the greatest sculptures of all time is Michelangelo’s David. The story of it’s creation is interesting. A guy named Donatello was originally commissioned to do the work almost 10 years before Michelangelo was born. Donatello died two years into the project having only taken out a large chunk or two of unneeded stone. For over 30 years this 20 foot block of marble laid on it’s side exposed to the elements. In 1501, a 26 year old Michelangelo convinced the powers that be to allow him to do the project. He was chosen over da Vinci and others. The 17 foot statue took over three years to complete. It weighs over 12,000 pounds. It’s 514 years old. Legend goes that for 30 days he sat and stared at the block of marble all day long, just stared. After it’s completion it is said that when Michelangelo was asked how did you do that? He simply said, “I just cut away everything that wasn’t David.” Everyone else saw a big block of marble. That’s all we see, just a big old ugly rock. But the master Michelangelo saw David in there. He cut away everything that wasn’t David. So David became what he already was in the mind of his creator.  

It’s the same process with all of us. God has already declared our heart as pure. If we surrender our life to Jesus, he already sees us in Christ as having a pure heart. Now we cooperate with him in the process of becoming what we are. The cutting away, the getting rid of the things that bind us and that trip us up and that cover us up.