Heat can breed or kill pathogens.

When the temperature rises outside, standing water can breed bacterial growth. You may see beaches shut down from E.coli levels raising. On the other hand, heat from a fire can kill pathogens growing in water if that heat is allowed to treat the water properly, purifying it in the process. 

Hearts have a similar analogy. Standing still when life gets difficult produces stagnant, dead places.  It’s been said if we do what we always did, don’t expect things to change. Healthy and pure comes with movement, a recognition and then an action taken to move out of the old and into the new.  Impurity oftentimes is reclusive and unhealthy.

Impure hearts stem from idolatry, which allows setting up an altar to an image, an individual, an inclination, something injectable, or a form of intellectualism. Impurity inserts an inflated idea, causing inflammation and infirmity in the heart.

 There are many i’s in the above lines, all having to do with idolatry. Where is the “i” in pride”? Right in the middle. “I” has negative ripple effects. Idolatry is always prideful. Pride doesn’t fit into purity. On the other hand, purity pursues God’s principles. Impurity is selfish and small, ignoring God’s mandate to love God and love others, to advance His kingdom on this earth. The miniscule, mundane, and mind control often are a result of “I” being at the center. 

 If you see idols, tear them down. Be purified. Repent, reinstate that which matters, and return to the repairer and rebuilder of all things good, our loving Heavenly Father. Our good God reignites a fire when we are willing to be purified.

 1 Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with God’s household. 

Psalm 66:10 For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us like silver.

Acts 3:19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the LORD.

Let’s pray.

Dear Lord Jesus, we come to you believing that you only purify our hearts so that we long for your ways. We acknowledge that there is no other way than your way.  We lay down on the altar anything that doesn’t line up with your best for us.  Idols of any sort dirty that which you have in store for us.  We are sorry for _________, as it was placed as more important than you.  Forgive us, Lord.  Repair our brokenness so that you can be seen in everything we do.  It’s all for you and for your glory that we pray this. In Jesus’s all-powerful name, Amen.