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Cleansing From Within
Devotional for Wednesday, March 5, 2003 by Ivie Bozeman
Proverbs 4:23 - Carefully guard your thoughts because they are the true source of life. (CWE)Our thoughts are the forerunners of our words and actions. Submerged thoughts have a way of emerging when unguarded.
For years, people have complained I had a "shell" around me. Others felt I was "cold and unfeeling". I had such a tight grip on my personality, attempting to keep my words under control, and to speak only those words I felt others should hear a Christian speak. I feared losing control of my thoughts and suppressed feelings.
In studying the Bible, I found that it had a lot to say about the pure heart. If the heart were pure, why should the words that escaped my lips be impure?
Psalm 51:10 - Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (NIV)
Hebrews 10:22 - Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (NIV)
As I turned the searchlight directly on my own inner problems, I began to understand 1 Peter 1:22 - "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart." (NIV) Once I had purified my own heart, I could have sincere love for others, and I no longer had to set guard on my words and actions, because they had been purified from within. I became able to relax my cool, distant, outward appearance, and become a warm personality.
God wants us to surrender our hearts to Him. Then He will purify our thoughts, and make the words of our mouths acceptable. Only good thoughts come from a pure heart.
Prayer: Lord, create within each of us a pure heart. Let the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to You and be beneficial to others. Amen.
Ivie Bozeman <ivie@rose.net>
Thomasville, Georgia, USA
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Today's Music:
I Love You With The Love Of The Lord.