21 What Does Pure in Heart Mean? (Matthew 5:8)

Krisan Marotta: Good morning, you're listening to Wednesday in the Word, my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. I'm Krisan Marotta. Today, we're going to look at Matthew, chapter 5, verse 8. This is the 21st talk in our series on the Gospel of Matthew. You don't need to worry about taking notes, you'll find links for everything mentioned in the talk and an outline of all the main points on the website. You can find those lecture notes on the link below the podcast, or go to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 21. You can also find all previous episodes in this series on that website and many other series on wednesdayintheword.com. Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm really glad you're listening. We are still in the Beatitudes section of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. We're going to look at one more Beatitude today. For those of you just joining the podcast, let me remind you how I understand the Beatitudes. I've argued that in the Beatitudes, Jesus is describing people of faith. He is describing the destiny of those who will inherit a place in the kingdom of God. And we know from the rest of Scripture that people who are children of God and have a place in His kingdom are those who have saving faith. I've argued that there's a pattern to these Beatitudes, that they all have these four features. First, they tell us who is fortunate, who is in a highly desirable situation. Basically, that's the idea of being blessed. Second, each beatitude gives us a reason why such people are fortunate or blessed. And the basic reason is that they have a glorious future promised from God. The pattern is that it is their future destiny that makes them fortunate now. Third, the beatitudes are exclusive. Only the people who have these qualities have this glorious future. Only those people will inherit the kingdom of God, and these are qualities that define saving faith. And then finally, there is something surprising or ironic about each of the beatitudes. At first glance, the qualities Jesus describes that gain you the kingdom of heaven do not appear to be very good qualities. They don't seem to be desirable at all, and yet the people who have them are really truly fortunate and blessed. We're going to look at Matthew 5.8 today. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. At first glance, this beatitude seems pretty straightforward, but it's going to take some explaining, and we'll walk through it. First, who are the fortunate ones? Well, the answer is the pure in heart, but who are the pure in heart? Most people's first reaction is that the pure in heart are those people who are without sin. So our first gut reaction is that a pure heart is a heart that is perfectly pure and totally without sin of any kind. And that person would be truly blessed. The immediate problem with that interpretation is that no one other than Jesus has a pure heart. None of us can look inside and say, well, at least my heart is pure. In fact, lack of purity has been a sub theme in the Beatitudes so far. Why are we poor in spirit? Because we know we're sinful. Why are we mourning? We're grieving over our sin and the fact that we are not the people we should be. Why do we hunger and thirst for righteousness? Precisely because we do not have it now. Why are we merciful? Because we know how much we ourselves need mercy. If a pure heart means totally without sin, then it contradicts the other beatitudes. Now it's possible that Jesus has shifted gears, and some have suggested that that's what's going on, that Jesus is not talking about anything that is attainable in this life. Unlike the beatitudes we've seen so far, Jesus is no longer talking about something that is true of believers right now, but rather he shifted gears and he's talking about something that one day will be true. And that's another possible interpretation. He could be saying, One day in the kingdom of God, you will be blessed because you will be pure in heart, that is, totally free from sin. And a variation of this interpretation is that he could be saying, true, in this life you will never obtain a pure heart, you will never reach perfect righteousness, but that's the goal you ought to be shooting for. Well, I don't think that's what's going on here. I think we have good reason to believe that like the other beatitudes, this is something that is true of believers now in this life, and it is something that is part of saving faith. Why do I think that? First, this beatitude fits the pattern of all the others. The pattern is you are fortunate now in this life because in the future you stand to inherit a place in the kingdom of God. That appears to be the pattern of everything we've seen so far, and I'm going to argue it's the pattern of the ones coming up. There's no indication in the context that Jesus is doing something different with this beatitude. So I would expect him to continue the pattern. Second, the reason why the pure in heart are blessed is a future hope. One day in the kingdom of God, the pure of heart will see God. And we'll talk about what that means in a minute. And then finally, when we explore how this phrase pure in heart is used in Scripture, we find that it does not describe hypothetically perfect believers, but rather real, genuine believers in this world now. And we're going to look at some examples of that. So given all of that, I think we have good reason to expect that whatever pure in heart means, it defines something that is true of believers right now. So let's explore what that phrase means. The Greek word translated pure here is catharas. It means literally clean, clear, or pure. The basic idea, the root meaning of this word is cleansing. When something is cleansed, something undesirable has been washed away or removed. If you're talking about a literal cleansing, you take a shower to wash away the grime or the dirt. You want to get rid of the dirt so you wash it away with water and then you're cleansed. This word is used to describe both ritual purity and also true inner spiritual purity. There are a number of practices in the Old Testament that concern religious purity or ritual purity. So there are these certain prescribed actions you go through to physically cleanse yourself to prepare for a sacrifice or a Sabbath, and you do this cleansing in a ritual way to obtain religious purity. So you might wash the utensils you're going to use or your hands in a ritual way before eating and so forth. This ritual purity is meant to symbolize a more important inner spiritual purity. Now the Pharisees of Jesus' day were intensely concerned with ritual purity. Several times in the Gospels we see Jesus rebuke the Pharisees for emphasizing outward ritual purity and ignoring the inner spiritual purity. For example, this is Matthew twenty three verses twenty five and twenty six. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self indulgence. You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside may also be clean. Now that word translated clean there in those two verses is the same word we have pure in the Beatitudes. Jesus is talking about the cleansing of the inner person. It doesn't matter how clean you are on the outside, if you're full of greed and selfishness on the inside, the important thing is to get rid of the inner greed and self indulgence. So we see Jesus is more concerned with the cleanliness of the person inside than the cleanliness of the utensils used in religious practices. And I think this is the kind of thing Jesus has in mind in the Beatitude. I have argued that the Sermon on the Mount is particularly aimed at the Pharisaic worldview, and I think that's what's going on here. Just like we saw poor in spirit, I think he's emphasizing blessed are the pure in heart, not those who are ritually pure on the outside, but those who have an inner purity. And I think he intends to make a distinction between the internal nature of this purity and an external religious purity. We've seen this clarification in the other Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, emphasizing this is an inward reality, not an outward state. Blessed are those who hunger for righteousness, emphasizing this is not a physical hunger, but a spiritual hunger. And I think that inner emphasis is continuing here. So if I'm right, if Jesus is talking about an inner state rather than an external state, we're still left with the question, what is that inner state? What does it mean to be pure in heart? Well to answer that question I want to look at three passages. Two of them are in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. And the first one I want to look at is Psalm seventy three, and I'm going to start reading in verse one. Truly, God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked, for they have no pangs until death, their bodies are fat and sleek, they are not in trouble as others are, they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace, violence covers them as a garment, their eyes swell out through fatness, their hearts overflow with follies, they scoff and speak with malice, loftily they threaten oppression, they set their mouths against the heavens and their tongues stretch through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them and find no fault in them, and they say, How can God know, is there knowledge in the most high? Behold, these are the wicked always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said I will speak thus I would have betrayed the generation of your children, but when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin. And I'll stop there. The Psalm starts with this very simple assertion Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. So he starts with this statement, surely it is true that God is good to the children of Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But then he begins to doubt that assertion. He looks around him and he sees the wicked, and they seem to have it made. They seem to be prospering, they seem to be better off than he is. For example, this is twelve through fourteen. Behold, these are the wicked, always at ease, they increase in riches. In vain I have kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence, for all day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. So he's tempted to think, Well, what good is it? What benefit is it for being pure of heart? I've kept my heart clean, I've washed my hands in innocence, and what good has it done me? The wicked they're at ease, they're increasing in riches, they seem to be prospering. Now notice he's tempted, but he doesn't succumb to the temptation. Back up to verses two and three. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. So he looked around and he was envious, and he was tempted to ask, What good is it to keep my heart pure? Because these arrogant, wicked people who are speaking against God, they're prospering. So he's tempted to give up, but fortunately God reminds him that the wicked have a very different destiny in store. Let me go back to sixteen through eighteen. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task until I went into the sanctuary of God, then I discerned their end. Truly you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin. So the psalmist remembers what's true. In the end, the wicked are going to be destroyed, but the destiny of those who are pure in heart is that they will be received into glory. Let me pick up at verse eighteen and keep reading in the Psalm. Truly, you set them in slippery places, you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors, like a dream when one awakens, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and arrogant, I was like a beast toward you. Nevertheless, I am continually with you, you hold my right hand, you guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish, you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you, but for me it is good to be near God. I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works. So in this Psalm we see this contrast between the wicked and the pure of heart. The wicked are prospering now. They're described as fat and foolish in speaking against God. They are arrogant, they're clothed in violence, they mock and they speak of oppression, but in the end the wicked are going to be destroyed. By contrast, the pure of heart are not like that. They have purified their hearts to reject a wicked, greedy, arrogant rebellion against God. They have made God their refuge, they draw near to God, and in the end they will be received into glory even though they are stricken and rebuked now. So in this context, the one who is pure of heart is a faithful, trusting believer in God. Nothing in this Psalm suggests that the pure of heart is perfectly without sin. In fact, I think it suggests the opposite. He was tempted, he was envious, his feet almost slipped to doom, but in the end he stayed on the right path. The Psalm does not describe his pure heart as morally perfect, but rather in contrast to the wicked, his is a heart that is cleansed from a fundamental rebellion and arrogance toward God. So the wicked are wallowing in this rebellion toward God, but he is cleansed from that hostility and unwillingness to follow God's ways. My second passage is also an Old Testament Psalm. I want to look at Psalm twenty four. This is a Psalm of David. I'll start in verse one. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation, such as the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Now many scholars and commentators have suggested that this Psalm, Psalm twenty four, inspired the beatitude we're looking at, and there are several similarities between them. Both talk about the pure in heart, both say the pure in heart will receive a blessing from the Lord, and both describe the pure in heart as those who seek the face of God. They want to see God. And I agree, I think it's quite likely that Jesus had this psalm in mind when he spoke the Beatitude. Now in this psalm, the pure of heart are contrasted with falsehood and deceit. Look at twenty four four again. He who has clean hands and a pure heart who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. I think the picture he's painting here is that the heart is pure because it is not hypocritical, it is not duplicitous, it's not lying and swearing falsely. So it is not saying one thing on the outside and thinking something entirely different on the inside. It's pure in that it is sincere and genuine. What is in his heart is the same on the inside and out. So Psalm 73 and Psalm 24 give us a pretty good concept of what it means to be pure in heart. This concept shows up in a few other passages, but I'm not going to take the time to look at all of them here. I will list them in the lecture notes if you want to investigate them for yourselves. My conclusion is that the Old Testament gives us a picture that pure hearts are those that are cleansed from rebellion and hostility toward God. The people with these kind of hearts are contrasted with the way the rest of humanity treats God. The rest of humanity wants wealth and pleasure and power, and they're willing to ignore and mock God to get those things. They will lie and swear falsely to get whatever they want. In contrast, the pure in heart are those who are seeking the ways of God. They acknowledge that God is right. They try to follow his ways even when it costs them to do so. They wait for God, they trust God to do right by them, and their hearts are free or cleansed from this arrogance, mocking and unbelief. So the contrast between those who are pure in heart and those who aren't pure in heart is not the contrast between, say, a mediocre person and Mary Poppins, who is practically perfect in every way. The contrast is between those who are seeking to follow God and those who have rebelled against God and couldn't care less what he thinks. So the pure in hearts are hearts that have been cleaned from rebellion and hostility so that they now genuinely and sincerely seek God. The third passage I want to consider is James four. We've looked at this passage before when we talked about those who mourn. I can't remember if I mentioned in that podcast, but I think James is highly influenced by the teachings of Jesus and in particular by the Sermon on the Mount, and this section in particular has several echoes of the Sermon on the Mount. Now let me remind you, James is writing to people who claim to be Christians. They say they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, yet they live their lives as if the gospel is not true. My understanding is that the primary theme of the book of James is that if you really believe something is true, it will change the way you live. And if James is looking at these churches he's writing to and he's saying, you're in trouble because the way you're living your life contradicts what you say you believe. Now I have another podcast series on the book of James, which you can find on wednesdayintheword.com if you're interested. So for now, realize that James is writing to people who, although they call themselves believers, the way they live is like the wicked in Psalm 73. They want the things of this world and they are ignoring the ways of God to get them. James calls these people double minded because they're hypocritical. They talk as if they're believers, but they're actually actions indicate that their hearts are set on something else. Let me read James chapter four, verses four through ten. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. Now remember James is writing to believers but he calls them adulterers. They claim to love God but they really love the world. They claim to be friends with God but they are really friends of the world. And his advice to them in four eight is draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners and purify your hearts, you double minded He is telling them you need to get rid of the hostility and the arrogance and the rebellion to God that you claim to have abandoned. To have a pure heart is to have a single mind. Instead of trying to love God and love the world you need to love God and God only. They need to cleanse their hearts from unbelief and rebellion. James wants them to stop being double minded, to stop trying to please both God and the world he wants them to actually embrace the faith that they claim to believe and live like it's true. And he describes that as cleansing your hands and purifying your hearts so putting those passages together then the picture that emerges about what it means to be pure in heart I think is this to be pure in heart is to have a heart that is cleansed of its fundamental unbelief and rebellion to God. It is a heart that is not hypocritical the pure in heart actually believe what they say they believe. The pure in heart live like the gospel is true, though not perfectly this is particularly applicable to the kind of religious hypocrisy and double mindedness we see in the Pharisees I understand Jesus to be saying that the truly fortunate person is the one whose heart is sincerely and genuinely set on God and truly cleansed from hostility toward God and unbelief. Now why are these people fortunate? Because they shall see God. Okay what are we to make of that? Can we really see God? We could look at a few passages in the Old Testament that say no one can see God and live. For example we have this exchange between Moses and God during the Exodus this is Exodus thirty three verses eighteen through twenty three Then Moses said I pray you show me your glory and he, this is God answering, said I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion. But he said You cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. Then the Lord said Behold there is a place by me and you shall stand there on the rock and it will come about while my glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by then I will take my hand away and you shall see my back but my face shall not be seen So this Exodus passage is pretty clear. God is speaking to Moses and he says you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. And now we have Jesus saying in this Beatitude that the pure in heart shall see God. So what does Jesus mean? Well we know that the pattern of the Beatitudes suggests that Jesus is talking about their glorious destiny in the future coming kingdom of God. This is a future hope that will be fulfilled in the kingdom. The pure in heart are fortunate because when the kingdom comes they will see God. Now this sort of language is common in the Old Testament we saw this in Psalm twenty four, which again many scholars think inspired this beatitude let me reread Psalm twenty four three through six Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord and who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully he will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation such as the generation of those who seek him who seek the face of the God of Jacob. So the pure of heart are those who seek the face of God they want to stand before him and see him in some sense we find similar language in other Psalms in contrast to the wicked Psalm 1715 says as for me I shall behold your face in righteousness when I awake I shall be satisfied with your likeness. And Psalm eleven seven says for the Lord is righteous, he loves righteous deeds the upright shall behold his face we could look at a few other passages but the Old Testament frequently describes the destiny of the righteous as beholding the face of God. So is this literal or metaphorical I lean toward metaphorical because these Psalms are poetry we expect metaphorical language in poetry and we have this other Exodus passage that says you can't literally see his face I think probably what's going on here is you will behold his face has the idea of you can stand before him and he will accept you as opposed to say metaphorically turning his back on you and rejecting you. You come before him and he does not turn away he accepts you rather than rejects you and so in that metaphorical sense you behold his face as opposed to if you came before him and he rejected you and turned his metaphorical back on you. And there is this kind of fitting connection between seeing God and being pure in heart. Those who have genuinely set themselves on the things of God and are seeking to follow him will find him. In that sense they will see his face and Jesus is saying they are pure in heart are fortunate because they are the ones who are genuinely seeking God and they will in fact find him now what exactly will that look like when the kingdom comes I'm not sure will God manifest himself in some physical way that we can comprehend? Possibly will we see God in the sense that God is in Jesus and we will see Jesus? Possibly I don't know exactly what this will look like when it's fulfilled but I think the promise is that the pure in heart are those people who are no longer rebellious toward God, they are seeking him and they are not seeking him in vain. We who long for God and who cannot stand before him as the sinful wretches that we are now will one day be able to stand before him worthy, clean and forgiven and we will see him in some sense. Like the other Beatitudes I think Jesus is saying only those who have this quality of being pure in heart will see God and that makes sense with the passages we looked at in the Old Testament where the pure in heart are contrasted with the wicked. The contrast is between being someone who seeks God and someone who mocks and rejects God The pure in heart are those who have saving faith which as I've argued involves these four core convictions a genuine desire for holiness in and of itself so I want the things of God not the things of the world. As we saw in the Psalms I want to be a friend of God not a friend of the world a genuine understanding that left to myself I am totally incapable of obtaining holiness that's the idea of mourning our sins knowing we need grace and mercy knowing we can't make ourselves righteous and then coupled with that an understanding that God owes us nothing and we are unworthy of any gift from God instead we seek him we humbly wait on God rather than presumptuously demanding his favor and then all of that ties into a firm trust that because of the work of Jesus Christ God will in fact make me holy and forgive me and grant me an inheritance in the kingdom of God. And then lastly like the other Beatitudes we can see that there is a surprising or ironic twist that such people are fortunate. And again this is pretty clear in Psalm 24 remember how the psalmist almost gave up on seeking God he looked at the wicked and he said well they look like they haven't made they look like everything is going their way while I who am pure in heart am being scorned and rebuked. If you're not seeking to get ahead in this world it's quite likely that you're getting left behind in one way or another. It can be very costly to seek God and to follow him. So at the moment in the short term it looks like those who are seeking God are being left behind, being rebuked being taken advantage of and that there's nothing enviable about that position but in the long run they stand to gain that which is truly valuable. So Jesus is saying the truly fortunate are those who have set their hearts single mindedly on God instead of the things this world has to offer. He's not describing the person who is morally perfect and has his act together like the Pharisees thought they did. He's describing someone who is seeking God as opposed to being hostile toward him. So I would paraphrase this beatitude like this as surprising as it may seem those whose hearts have been cleansed from hostility toward God and worldliness, those who are sincerely seeking the face of God are truly fortunate because they and they alone will stand before God and be accepted when he establishes his kingdom now that raises the question how do I know if all this describes me? What if I'm just fooling myself into thinking that I'm seeking God but actually I'm not we just looked at the letter James wrote where he was writing to a whole bunch of people who claim to be believers but James has some pretty serious doubts that they are or look at the parable of the sower and the seed that strongly suggests that some people who hear the gospel it looks like they believe and then they fall away how do I know that I am not one of those people well scripture addresses that question in several places and I want to go back to James to answer it. This is James 1 verses 2 through 4 count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing. James says basically rejoice when you encounter trials because trials test your faith and when your faith is tested that produces steadfastness or perseverance and perseverance leads to maturity. Now notice what's not being tested here the trials that come do not test how worthy you are for salvation. This is not a test of my character it's not a test to determine how nice or how patient or how generous I am the results of that test are already in and we all failed. We are all sinners and our characters are flawed and selfish and every corner of our beings are marked and flawed by sin. We all fall short of the glory of God. We are broken sinners trapped by our sin and unable to change that ourselves apart from the blood of Christ and the grace of God we have no hope of escaping sin. So the test is not how worthy am I of salvation that test is over and we failed. The question being tested is do we have real genuine saving faith or not? And that's the question on the table how do I know that I am a person who is pure of heart or mourning or poor in spirit well perseverance gives us proof that we do actually in fact have saving faith and we can have confidence then that all the promises of the gospel are ours. When we go through a trial and we come out the other end with our faith intact we call that perseverance my faith has been tested and shown through the test to be the real deal. Now Peter echoes the same thing in his first chapter Paul says the same thing in Romans 5 trials lead to perseverance and perseverance leads to hope the hope of the gospel I know that the promises of the gospel are mine in a very real way if I have faced into a test and come out the other end with my faith intact. So remaining steadfast through a trial answers the question I think we all struggle with. How do I know I'm a believer? How do I know that I won't fall away in the future or that I'm just not fooling myself now well James, Paul and Peter would say you know because God has put you in situations where you had to choose to follow him your faith was put to the test and you had to say am I going to go God's way or my way and you chose God's way. So your faith has endured a trial and you can look back on that and say I made it through that that is evidence real tangible evidence that I have saving faith. This is a fundamentally important New Testament concept it's really hard to find a book in the New Testament that doesn't either directly or indirectly talk about trials testing our faith it is God's purpose in this life to take us through difficult situations that will test our faith and prove that our faith is real and will strengthen our faith. So the connection between testing trials and the proof that emerges that's just found all over the New Testament and how is our faith proved to be real? It survives when the pressure comes and I'm faced with questions like who do I really trust? What am I really counting on? Am I going to choose God's way or the way of the world? Am I willing to set my heart and my hope on the things of God even when it costs me and if I've chosen God's way my faith will come out of the trial real and proven and matured and strengthened. Now trials come in many many shapes and sizes it's not just the big health and wealth issues or the tragedies of life it's any issue that forces me to choose whether I am trusting the ways of God or not. Any issue where it may cost me maybe I have to appear foolish in someone else's eyes maybe I look different or I dress differently or I speak differently maybe I lose a friend or give up the rewards of this world The questions and the trials come in all shapes and sizes will I stay chaste before marriage and faithful to my spouse after will I lie on a job application? Will I cheat on a test? Will I strive for money or beauty above everything else? Will I cheat or lie to get my way or put someone else down to make me look better? Any situation can force me to ask the question who do I trust? What am I counting on and where is my hope? And it is crucially important that we have faith. Trials are part of the process of maturing and strengthening and growing our faith and we can rejoice in them because we know what we stand to gain and because of what we stand to gain it's worth going through the trial now. Now notice that maturity and perseverance are not the same thing as perfect obedience persevering in a trial does not mean that we will be without sin and live without making mistakes. In fact I'd say part of growing in wisdom and maturity is being able to clearly see my mistakes and see my own sin for what it is. As I grow in wisdom I still have the same struggles with myself but my perspective on them changes. I begin to see sin more clearly as sin. Maybe repentance comes a bit quicker. Maybe humility comes a little easier my excuses and my justifications for sin begin to seem weak and flimsy and foolish in a way that they didn't seem before my faith is tested when I'm put in a situation where I wonder if God is truly God, if he is truly on my side and I must act as if God is in control and not me. I must choose between trusting that he has my best interest in mind or taking matters into my own hands. Now that's not a matter of being tough it's a question of what do I actually believe to be true and am I going to live like it. When I go through these trials clinging to my faith then I know that my faith is real and that I am a person who is pure of heart and who is seeking God. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what scripture means but also shows you how to figure it out. You can hear all previous episodes in this series on wednesdayintheword.com as well as find many other series there. There's no charge, no spam and no ads. It's all free and designed to help you improve your study skills and your understanding of scripture. If you've been blessed by this podcast please leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen to podcast. But most importantly tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by my friend and favorite musician Reggie Coast and you can find his music and CDs on hearthelmusic.org Thank you for joining me today I'm Chris Unmirata and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the world