The Bible gives us at least six ways we can cultivate a pure heart. In this post we’ll focus on the second way to do that.
God says, if I’m going to keep my heart pure, then second, I need to remove my callouses. It is said of the wicked in Psalm 119:70, “Their hearts are callous and unfeeling…”
When I was in college I volunteered as the children’s pastor at a local church. I had to learn the guitar so I could lead the kids in worship. Well let me tell you something I learned about playing the guitar. If you’re new to playing, your finger tips will be very sensitive to pressing down the strings to the fingerboard. If you practice for more than five minutes it hurts! Your fingers will literally start bleeding if you play too long! In time though, you develop callouses. Once these are developed you can press down as hard as you want and you won’t feel a thing.
This is what can happen to our hearts through disobedience. They can get to the place where when God speaks to our hearts or convicts our hearts, we don’t feel a thing! This is a bad place to be. But the good news is that we can remove the callouses from our heart! A pumice stone will remove the callouses from your hands or feet and obedience will remove the callouses from your heart. When the callouses are gone, we once again become sensitive to the Lord’s leading. We once again feel his promptings and conviction. And the more you obey the more sensitive you become.
Removing the callouses from our heart is the second way we can cultivate a pure heart.